And then there was silence
by Jasmin 0583
Summary: When the team is informed that one of their own was brought to hospital suffering from severe injuries and fighting for his life it's up to them to find out how and why it happened...
1. Chapter 1

A.N.: After my boyfriend kept on insisting for weeks that I should finally post this story I'm doing him the favour. Hope you like it as much ashe did. Please R+R

Chapter 1:

„Agent Malone? There is a call for you..."

That was how a Monday morning was supposed to start. It was six o' clock in the morning and he hadn't even entered his private office fully yet, hadn't been able to put down his things, get out of his coat and fetch himself a coffee and there was already work waiting for him. But six o' clock was really pretty early, even for this annoying Monday morning.

He gave the younger agent informimng him a miserrable look and responded without any passion or interest in his voice. It sounded more like a sigh.

"Who is it?"

"Mercy Hospital, Sir…"

Now his interest had awoken – and with it his worry and concern. Why did they call at this – still – time of the night? It wasn't a good sign when the FBI's missing persons unit was called by a hospital – at least most of the time. They probably had found one of the missing persons for them and he just hoped he or she hadn't end up in the morgue. He didn't want his day to begin with a tragedy like that.

He nodded to the younger agent and signaled him to leave.

"I'll take the call in my office."

"Okay, Sir."

The agent hurried to leave and Jack went round his desk, sat down and picked up the phone.

"Malone?"

"This is Dr, Collins from Mercy Hospital. I have a rather big and extraordinary question, Agent Malone, but I need you to come over here immediately. There is a situation I need your help with.

Jack had spoken to Dr. Patricia Collins many times before – sometimes for good, sometimes for bad reasons. They knew each other pretty well and respected the work of the other. They had always been friendly with each other and he considered her a great help and a nice co-worker. But her wish surprised and disturbed him none the less or even more because of their relation.

"What is this all about?"

He asked back curiously, but her answer wasn't what he had wanted to hear.

"I can't tell you on the phone. Just come over here – please."

He knew he wouldn't get any more information from her – even if he insisted, so he didn't. She would tell him sooner or later.

"Alright, I will be there in about 15 minutes."

As he had promised, he arrived at the hospital about a quarter of an hour later and asked the receptionist at the front desk of the hosptitals foyer for Dr. Collins. The reaction, the answer somehow surprised him.

"Agent Malone?"

He frowned but answered her question none the less.

"Yeah, exactly."

"Dr. Collins left a message for you. She's upstairs at ICU and she asks you to meet her there."

"Thanks Miss."

His concern grew more and more right now. ICU never was a good thing – it meant somebody was close to death. But what disturbed him even more, was the fact, that this wasn't the normal policy, if Dr. Collins informed him about a missing person she was taking care of.

Normally she called him, gave him the name, asked him to come over for identification and met him down at the lobby to join him. Today – this wasn't the case.

He rushed to the elevators, stepped inside and pressed the button for the fourth floor – Intensive Care Unit – ICU. The elevator seemed to creep up from floor to floor – having all the time in the world – and he was left with enough time to develop all kinds of thoughts, what Dr. Collins called him here for. He wasn't even sure he wanted to know. When the doors finally opened and the first thing he saw was Dr. Collins nervous, concerned and sad expression on her face, he was almost sure he didn't wanna know.

She stepped close to him, reached out a hand to greet him and a short smile appeared on her worried face. Although he desperately wanted to know what he had come here for, he tried to show some sympathy.

"You look tired."

Another sad smile crossed her face before she answered.

"It was a rough night…"

He took the chance to finally get some more information from her and end this uncertainty about the situation.

"Has that something to do with why you wanted me to come here?"

"Actually yes. One of my patientents is keeping me worried."

"So why couldn't you tell me on the phone - as usual?"

She sighed and looked past him to the entrance doors of ICU.

"Because it's not an ordinary situation."

"What's so special about it? Why am I here?"

"You're here to identify someone…"

"Someone we were searching for? I don't see the…"

She stopped him from going on and somehow the expression on her face seemed to be more desperate now. He just didn't get what made her feel so affected, what caused her so much trouble to tell him. He didn't understand the extraordinarity of the current situation.

"No, it's noone who was missing. It's a little more difficult, more delicate and somehow more private. I believe it's one of your agents…"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

„You believe?"

He was stunned by her words – and he was deeply afraid. She knew everyone from the team – they had all seen each other face to face. She would know if it was one of his agents. The use of the word believe´caused an akward sickening feeling to rise in him. Why couldn't she be sure? What made it so difficult for her to be certain about the person's identity? He had an uncertain feeling of already knowing her trouble.

Whatever had happened to the individual they were talking about right now, had caused such severe outer damage, that she needed him to identify. He was pretty sure he didn't wanna see this. He didn't even wanna go on talking and - right now – he regretted to have asked any further, for he didn't want the certainty of his thoughts being simply the truth. But she wouldn't leave him any chance.

"I canot be sure of it. The injuries are – well – severe isn't a strong enough word for it, I'd say…"

Jack took his time to breathe audibly before he asked the question he actually didn't even want to. But he would receive the information from her either way – if he wanted or not. And he would have to get in there – to ICU – for identification. There was no way to escape that. Only the slight chance, that Dr. Collins maybe was wrong.

"So – to your believe – who is it?"

"I believe it's Agent Taylor."

Danny. Hopefully she was wrong, for nobody would have deserved whatever had happened and what Dr. Collins was about to tell him. He could hear his brain almost screaming – let her be wrong! Let her be wrong! But he knew she was a goddamn good surgeon and she knew all members of the team pretty well. Chances that she was wrong were low, but they were there.

He tried once again.

"But you can't be certain?"

"No, I can't. I need your help. I'm sorry I have to demand this from you, but there is no other way. He doesn't have any family, does he?"

"No, he doesn't."

"Well I'm sorry then, but you have to join me to his room to tell me if it's really him."

He took another breath and tried to mentally prepare himself for the task Dr. Collins had put up for him right now. He had done this before, had been asked to identify people before, but he had never really known them. They had been part of the job and after all they all stayed strangers to him. Maybe there had been some kind of an emotional connection in the one or other case, but this was something completely different.

He knew Danny for years – he was a friend, someone he really cared about and the emotional bond they shared was deeper than anything that had ever connected him to any of the missing people of a case. He wasn't sure he could do this, but he was sure he didn't want to. Dr. Collins forced him back to the present of this Monday morning.

"You ready?"

"Wait a sec – please. Can you tell me,…, what kind of injuries… Is it really that bad?"

"Maybe we sit down at some quiet place for some moments?"

He simply nodded and Dr. Collins let him to the ICU's waiting room. He sat down and she took a seat opposite of him.

"To put this right at first place: my patient, your agent – is barely alive. He's not breathing, his heartbeat's not regular and the function of his liver and kidneys are not like I would want them to be. His inner organs are barely working. He was suffering from multiple fractures, cuts, burns and bruises. He had severe inner bleedings and a head trauma we had to take care of. To be honest with you – I have no idea how the hell he survived up to the point we were able to begin our treatment. To my eyes it's a miracle he's still alive and we can't even be sure it'll stay this way. His condition is critical, very very critical. It takes nothing more but one simple infection of one of the numerous wounds. Only one infection that will cause fever and he'll probably die. His body couldn't cope with any more load. To answer your previous question: It really is that bad."

This was far worse then Jack had expected it to be. He had hoped Dr. Collins could tell him something that would assure him, make it easier for him to enter the rooms laying behind him. But actually she had only made it worse. Her words, her confession had been far more disturbing then he had believed they ever could be. He knew she only tried to be honest with him, tried to prepare him for what he would get to see. But he was pretty sure there were no words in the world that could help him to get through this.

"There is something else I need to tell you, although you already know, for you have been visiting patients at ICU before. But if it's someone you know it's always something different."

Jack nodded silently to give his okay and Dr. Collins went on with her little speech.

"I just would like to warn you – it's not a pretty sight to look at. Apart from the injuries, which – as I told you – are pretty severe and pretty nasty there are some other things of disturbance. As he's not breathing on his own we were forced to tube him, he is hooked to several machines monitoring his vitals and he has several IV-lines entering his body. Don't be disturbed by all of this – all these machines help him, they keep him alive. I know it's hard to accept, but it's the only way possible right now to keep him alive. I know that to unfamiliar, untrained – let's say not medically trained eyes – it looks awful, especially if it's someone you care for. But I can assure you – it doesn't harm him in any way…"

She left him some seconds of time to think about her words before she asked him her final question.

"You ready to go inside?"

He nodded, unable to say a word and followed her out of the waiting room to the doors of ICU. He had been to this part of the hospital so many times before, but this was the first time he felt afraid – and sick. Dr. Collins was walking in front of him, guiding him to the hall from one room to another, all of them with wide examination windows. She finally stopped in front of one of the rooms and gave him an assuring look and a smile.

"You may have a look inside as soon as you feel ready for it."

He knew he would never feel ready for it, so he didn't allow himself to have any more doubt and fear sink in and simply raised his head to just have a look. What came to his sight only allowed him to react in one way.

"Oh good lord!"

That was answer enough for Dr. Patricia Collins – she had positively identified her patient with the help of Agent Malone.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Dr. Collins had led Jack out of ICU, after he positively had identified his fellow agent. His face was rid of all emotions – he looked so empty, so lost to her. She knew it was unbelievably hard to see someone like this and that's what Agent Malone looked like right now – like he just couldn't believe. Finally he found his words once again – in an outburst of emotion.

„What the hell happened to him? That's nothing of the kind of normal injuries!"

"Yes, you're right, it isn't. Taking the kind and severeness of the injuries into consideration and putting up a time frame for the injuries he was suffering from…"

"What!"

"I believe he was tortured. That would be my – diagnosis to explain the injuries…"

He was speechless, he just couldn't believe she really meant what she had just said. It didn't make any sense. Who would do this to Danny? And the even more important question was. Why? What had he done or known that somebody was desperate, cold-hearted and crazy enough to do something like this to him? He repeated the doctors words in disbelief.

"Tortured?"

"That's what I believe and this indicates a timeframe in which the injuries occurred. Taking into consideration that he's still alive, the more severe injuries probably occurred at a later time, then…"

Jack interrupted her – his thoughts were racing to catch up to what she was talking about.

"Wait a second! What does that mean a timeframe? What exactly are we talking about?"

She took some seconds to think about his question before she looked him right in the eyes to answer him.

"As the even more deeper cuts already started a healing process on their own when he was brought in – I'd say several days."

He couldn't do anything against the feeling of nausea that overtook him by her answer and once again he was only able to repeat her words in disbelief.

"Days? Several days? Don't tell me he had been conscious for the whole time! I mean he's unconscious right now…"

Desperation lay in his voice as he waited for Dr. Collins to answer his question and the fact that she took her time made him believe he wouldn't like the answer she would give him.

"I'm sorry – but I'm afraid he has been. For the whole distance of the two and a half days."

"Good lord!"

"As I already told you – I have no idea how he could survive that. He must be an extremly strong and also stubborn character. He wasn't willing to give up – that's what probably kept him alive over the full distance of time. I can't explain this in any other way. Because physically – well I don't believe anyone would survive such severe injuries. I'm still not sure he will, as I already told you. But you know the saying – mind is stronger than matter. I guess that's deeply true in his case."

"Stubborn – huh? I guess you could say that about him."

A slight smile had appeared on Jack's face right now and it made Dr. Collins feel even more sad to destroy his hope right away once again.

"Well apart from the physical damage – I don't even wanna think about the psychological consequences. Even if he'll make a full recovery – which I doubt – he'll never be the same person he was before."

"Well I know that – you don't need to tell me, but I will wait with being concerned about that until he's physically better. I know about the full range of psychological consequences: depression, paranoia, panic attacks and the list goes ever on and on. But don't let us talk about this now. Give him time and a chance to recover. We'll see how he is doing then."

He definitely had more knowledge about psychology than she had, so she wouldn't insist against him. But there was something else she had diagnosed, something else she needed to talk about with someone and as Agent Taylor didn't have a family, Agent Malone was the nearest person she thought of to tell her diagnosis.

"There is something else I need to tell you about. Something else I found out. I'm not sure I should bring this up, but as he has no family members and you seem to be a close friend… I guess you have a right to know about it and you make out what you wanna do about it. If you wana tell him you know or if you wanna tell anyone else about it…

"So what is it, that you need to tell me?"

She could hear the angshious tone in his voice and she wasn't sure if she wouldn't regret to tell him. But now she had started, there was no more way out of it. The silence between them longered as she tried to find the right words. Finally she whispered her diagnosis to him.

"There are signs of,…, sexual assault…"

There wasn't a word spoke after her statement. Complete deadly silence fell between them – one could have heard a needle falling to the ground. She knew this was hard to take and she knew he probably wouldn't believe her in first place. But there was nothing she could do about the facts. That was the way it was, if he wanted to believe it or not. She could hear his harsh breathing and could literally feel the anger behind it, before he finally responded to her words.

"No!"

He forcefully shook his head no and looked at her in anger and disbelief. She tried to stay objective and restrained – she needed to calm him down, needed to make him see she wasn't lying to him. That – as unbelievable and cruel as it was – it was the truth.

"I'm so sorry, but if definitely have proof for this. I know it's very hard and I know you don't want it to be true, but it happened. I'm absolutely sure about it."

She had believed he would insist again and again until he would finally believe her. But he gave in right away. He knew she had no reason to lie to him. She could almost see the emotions taking over his physics – could see how his heart sunk.

"Why the hell should somebody do this to him. Is there any justifiable reason for it? I mean – what the hell happened!"

"Have you ever seen any torement that needed a justifiable reason? People who do this, especially the people who did this to Agent Taylor, didn't care the last bit about human dignity. They probably had their own sick reasons, but we won't get to know about them. I'm so sorry I can't help you with this. I'd wish to do something for you – for him, but I can't tell you much. We haven't found anything – no fingerprints, no -…- bodyfluids – nothing that would help us identify his attackers."

"But how did he get here? Somebody must've called the ambulance…"

"He didn't come in here by ambulance. He was dropped off in front of the E.R. Nobody saw the driver of the car that took him here and we were too busy saving his life, so nobody had a closer look at the car or the direction the driver turned to. I can't give you any hint."

"I just can't believe this – I mean this is like a bad nightmare and I still wait for someone to wake me up, but nothing's happening… I'll find the goddamn bastards that did this to him! I bloody will – I owe him to do so. I want him to have the certainty that they won't ever hurt him again. I want him to feel safe when he wakes up…"

In her mind she silently corrected him – **if** he wakes up.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

„You got his personal things somewhere?"

"Yeah of course we do – they're still down at the E.R…"

"May I have a look at them."

She was hesitating before she answered, probably taking into consideration that he knew Danny pretty well and that it would be hard for him to have a look at his stuff.

"If you wish. But I'm warning you – it's not actually a very pretty thing to look at."

"I didn't expect it to be any different."

She slightly shrugged and went to the elevators, being followed by Jack. They got down to E.R. once again where she leaded him to one of the small, more quiet rooms behind the trauma rooms.

"Our patient's personal things are kept in here."

She turned on the lights inside the room and stepped inside before him, scanning through the boards, searching for the right bag with a patient's personal things. It took her about a minute until she finally reached out for one, hesitated another time and then turned around to give it to him.

"Is there anything special you are searching for?"

"I'm not sure – I hope to find any hint to what has happened to him, who did this to him…"

"You want me to leave you alone?"

"That would be nice. Just give me some time to have a look at his things – it won't take long."

"It's okay. You know I'm actually interfering with normal policy. I should've called police first. But I wanted you to know before, I didn't want you to receive the call from police…"

"I appreciate this, Dr. Collins. Thanks a lot."

"I don't think that's anything to be thankful about. But you can do it once again, if I will be able to save Agent Taylor's life…"

"Believe me – I will."

She turned from him and left the room, left him alone.

"Let's just hope there will be a chance to say thank you."

The thought crossed her mind as she closed the door again.

Jack was standing in the room lit by the cold, sterile, aggressive light of the neon lamp, holding the plastic bag, Dr. Collins had given to him, in hands. It felt strange, extremely strange. He had seen that much of evidence through the years of practice in his unit, but this was something completely different. This wasn't a piece of evidence like all the other he had seen, it was something special, something different – this was personal.

Whatever evidence they had been scanning through, he would never know the person it belonged to.

He knew he couldn't allow this fact of personal relation to interfere with his professional duties. He had to stay objective, had to stay calm, needed to keep the emotion out of it. But it wasn't easy, it really wasn't, although he tried to tell himself that he was professional enough to do this properly.

He finally opened the bag to have a look at the stuff Danny had with him when he was brought to hospital. The smell of it invaded his nose when he opened up the bag. The sudden fragrance of dried blood and sweat – Danny's blood, Danny's sweat – his pain, his fear.

Jack couldn't even imagine the pain, the horror and torment Danny had been going through. Seeing the evidence now – his dirty, disrupted, blood-spilled clothing - only gave a slight glimpse to it and that was already enough to make Jack feel nauseous. The sight in front of him, made him memorize little parts of Dr. Collins statement:

- tortured – several days – has been conscious – severe injuries – don't know how he survived...

He closed his eyes for a moment and ordered himself to focus. There was no other chance to proceed with it. Feeling furious and sick about what had happened to Danny wouldn't help him to get better and it wouldn't help Jack to find the ones being responsible.

Jack hoped to find something that would point to the kidnappers – any hint like a note, anything Danny had found out or had been able to scribble down, any information about what had happened. He was scanning through the things Dr. Collins had handed to him, but he wouldn't be lucky. There was nothing, absolutely nothing – at least nothing of importance.

They would need the results of a lab to find out anything more. There definitely were things Jack couldn't see. Hopefully they would find anything useful pointing to Danny's attackers – fingerprints, bodyfluids, anything like that. It was most likely, but as nobody had even seen who had brought his fellow agent here, it was possible that the lab wouldn't find any evidence either. These guys would be damn professional then – which wouldn't make their work – finding them – any easier.

Jack stopped his search and put Danny's stuff back. He couldn't take it with him and to the department's lab right away. Dr. Collins had been absolutely right with her evaluation. This wasn't a case of national measures and FBI probably wouldn't be in lead on this investigation. It would be handled by NYPD as normal policy instructed it and they would only be informed if the local police was polite enough to do so. Right now and all on his own there wasn't much he could do against it, but he would talk to Van Doren and ask her for the admission to take care of the investigation. It was an internal thing and that's where he wanted to keep it.

He put the bag down on the board it had laid before, switched off the lights and left the room. He went to the counter down at E.R. and asked the receptionist to inform Dr. Collins he had finished and that he had left the hospital. He wanted to be kept posted as soon as there would be any change about Danny's condition.

The real hard part about this – except for convincing Van Doren – was up to come. It was the emotionally most difficult situation he could think of right now – he had to inform the rest of his team...

A.N.: I will be gone for the weekend, so don't expect any more updates before Monday. Hope you lik it – please R+R.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

It was dark, pitch dark where he was right now. He couldn't see anything, there wasn't even a glimpse of light, not anywhere. But he wasn't afraid, he didn't feel trapped or lost right now. Actually it was difficult for him to sort out what and if he was feeling after all. His senses seemed to be somehow numb – he didn't feel cold or warm, didn't feel any pain or any sensation on his skin. It seemed like the air was totally still, there was no sign of wind, not even a breath of it.

He wouldn't remember anything – not how he got here, what had happened before or even how long he was here already. He had no sense of time – he couldn't piece together if he was standing here thinking for minutes or for days already. But even the realization of not knowing where he was, how long he was here and why, didn't scare him. He felt comfortable where he was, although the complete darkness normally wasn't something people liked that much. But he felt completely salvaged, like a child would be feeling inside his mother's lap before it was born.

He took a chance – finding courage for doing it hadn't been necessary for he still didn't feel any fear – and tried to step forward in the darkness of the room. All of a sudden the surrounding changed. He knew this was wrong, strange at least, but he wasn't able to feel this way. To him it felt absolutely normal, though he logically knew that it wasn't.

He had a look at the new surrounding around him and as the feeling of surprise at least should've invaded him, he felt nothing once again. The area around him looked like a deep old forest. A forest that one read about in fairytales, filled with wonders and dangers of a world far beyond reality. It was beautiful, absolutely beautiful, although the surrounding was still pretty dark and he was all alone.

The forrest itself contained tall, large trees probably some hundred years old. There were all kinds of different trees around him and all of them had a dark brown bark and full deep green leaves, which caused the semi-darkness of his surrounding. There were no pathes visible around him. The whole forest – or the part of it that he was able to see – looked like there had been nobody there in the past thousand years and everything had had it's chance to blossom like it had wanted to.

It seemed as if there was no chance to escape from this place, but he didn't feel like leaving after all. It was such a beautiful place and he didn't wish to be ripped out of here ever again. Logically he knew that he would need a place to stay at and something to eat, but he didn't care about it right now. He would take the time and think about it later. For the moment he just wished to sit down here for a while and look at the beauty around him.

Slowly he stopped thinking about the obvious question someone would have in a situation like this. Where am I, why am I here and how did I get here. But it all seemed so unimportant, so unnecessary to find out about. Why was he supposed to care about the where and how, when he had all this for himself? He felt happy here, content and without the slightest sign of doubt ot fear. He felt that relieved and rid of any negative emotion at the moment that he couldn't even think of anything else but the actual situation. There was nothing he wanted to change, nothing he wanted to know – he simply wanted to stay.

But somewhere deep in the back of his mind there was this dark, nagging, scaring sensation. He almost didn't feel it, but he knew it was there. He had no idea what this was about and as he had decided a minute ago he didn't want to find out, but it stayed where it was without going away. But neither did it decrease or increase, it was just simply there.

He ignored the feeling for the moment and concentrated on that glorious, wonderful, fulfilling sense of being safe. There was nothing that would harm him, he was safe in this forest for all eternity. He didn't know why he felt this way, but he just knew it was right – it was the truth.

He sat down in the dry and slightly warm grass and moss covering the ground and took the time to intensively look at everything around him. Although it looked like the forests he knew, something was wrong about it. It was different from the forests he had been to before. But it was nothing dangerous that made the difference here – nothing that would cause one to feel fear. It was just somehow strange, but without disturbing that amazing feeling of peace.

Time still didn't seem to matter for he still had no idea how long he already was sitting here. The shine of the light above him wasn't changing – it didn't get brighter or darker, but stayed absolutely the same. And there still was not even the slightest breeze of wind. The leaves were neither moving, nor were making any sound and as he listened carefully now, there wasn't even a trace of any sound around here. No falling leaves, no deers or birds, no splash of water – nothing.

He realized that he couldn't even hear his own breathing or the sound he should've heard when he went through the grass with his fingers. But except for the lack of sound, his senses still had that numb feeling. He wouldn't feel the grass on his fingers when he touched it and he couldn't smell the fragrance of the trees. But he knew it wasn't wrong, nothing was wrong. For the first time in life he felt absolutely secure. But the nagging sensation in the back of his mind told him that a feeling like this had nothing to do with the real world after all. This had to be something else.

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A.N.: I hope this chapter wasn't all too confusing. I was trying to create some imagery of mind which a comatose patient might be in. Like some form of a safe haven to protect body and soul. If anyone of you ever read "The Lazarus Child" you'll know where I was going with his.

Please R+R.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Jack arrived back at the bureau about an hour after he had left the hospital into that direction. He deliberately had taken some time to get back to the department. Time to think about the right words he had to say to tell the team about the current situation. And he had difficulties in even finding a single word to say. But he had to, there was no other way. If he wanted to take over authority in the investigation, everyone around him needed to know about the facts. Just that telling the facts wasn't easy when it involved talking about the horrific experience and the critical condition of someone they all knew and cared about. How was he supposed to do that? He had no answer to this question.

He took the elevator up to the floor of their unit's department and silently hoped for it to go slower. But – obviously as a strange sensation from him – time seemed to proceed somehow faster than normal. He was upstairs in no time and – as a matter of fact – the first face he looked at when the elevator doors opened was the one of Vivian, who gave him a slightly surprised look – probably for him being that late – and greeted him good morning.

He knew it was of no use to keep the information he had received private any longer. He better would tell them right now, otherwise he would hardly ever find the courage to do so. So he directly addressed Vivian without even having the politeness to say good morning. He wanted to get this done.

"Viv, I want you all to meet me in my private office right now. There's something I need to tell you about."

His face's expression didn't allow another response to this than a yes´. No insistance, no question – and that's what Vivian did.

"We will be there in a minute."

He nodded silently, turned his back on her and made his way to his office where he had the chance to sit down in the silence of the room for a moment. The words to say still hadn't found their way to his mind. A dark feeling inside him – a feeling of doubt and weakness – told him that he couldn't do this, that he wasn't able to. But he wouldn't listen to that. He was a responsible, grown up person and he had years of experience which should allow him to stay objective even in a situation like this. Maybe it was hard to deal with, but it wasn't impossible.

The silence was disturbed by a knock, followed by the opening of the door, when the rest of his team entered the room. He could see the look on their faces – shifting between concern and surprise. He asked them to sit down in a low voice and afterwards – as he was still deeply in thought about the right words to say – silence fell between them. He didn't even realize how long the moment of absolute quietness proceeded. Martin finally took the chance to interrupt the awkward silence.

"Jack?"

He looked up into the speaker's direction as he was ripped out of his thoughts. He saw the expectant faces of his co-workers and suddenly realized that he possibly had them already waiting for some time. There was another moment of hesitation before he finally found his voice.

"I was called by Dr. Collins from Mercy hospital this morning. She asked me to come over and identify one of her patients."

Sam interrupted Jack in a realization of what this probably would be about. It was a simple praticle thought and it completely interfered with Jack's desire to keep the final reveal about what had been happening at distance for some more time.

"If this is about a case I would propose we're going to wait until we're complete – so you don't have to tell it a second time."

Vivian joined the direction this conversation was going to, when she asked Jack the question he had wished to avoid for some more time.

"Where's Danny anyway?"

Right now it didn't seem so difficult to articulate some words. Although he really had no idea if it were the right ones. He didn't care actually. He was happy he had found a way to say anything after all.

"He won't join us."

Surprised looks all over once again. He knew he really gave them a hard time in understanding what he wanted to tell, but they would find out soon enough and he was pretty sure they would've been more happy if they hadn't found out. But it was too late for this now.

"And why's that?"

"Because he's the reason Dr. Collins called me. He's her patient."

The silence that followed for the next few seconds was overwhelming. Everybody was trying to make sense of his words and to understand the full graveness and consequences of his earlier words. And then – with the first, slightly audible, whispered word from Samantha – the silence was over, broken by an outburst of desperate question all at once.

"I...Identify...?"

"How is he?

"What happened?"

"What did Dr. Collins tell you?"

Jack defensively rose both hands, which – without a single word said by him – made the rest of the team stop immediately. Asking all this questions was of no use if Jack wouldn't have a chance to answer them.

He looked from one to the other and stopped when he saw the disbelief and slight horror on Samantha's face. He remembered her first whispered question. He had to tell them either way – so therefor he decided to start with the worst part first. All his explanations could only be better and more hopeful from there.

"Danny was brought to hospital yesterday night. Dr. Collins told me his injuries are very severe and that he's in a coma right now. She transfered him to ICU. She also told me his condition is extremely critical and that she can't give any prognoses about his chances of survival."

It was Vivian who first found her speech again. Her voice was soaked in disbelief and worry.

"Chances of survival? So, you mean he may die?"

"That's what Dr. Collins warned me about as the worst outcome of his current condition."

Vivian didn't know what to say about this. Although she had sounded like she couldn't at all believe what she had heard, she had seemed like she still had a trace of hope. But hope was something that seemed definitely out of place at the moment. Jack's words caused another few moments of silence and Sam – whose face's expression still was the one of complete shock – whispered her question once again.

"What did she mean by identify´?"

Jack had wished to avoid this part of the conversation at best completely, but at least for some more time.

"He had no documents with him, when he was brought in..."

He tried to keep the truth from her, tried to keep the real bad and awkward part of the information he had received from Dr. Collins from them. He didn't want the shock they all were already feeling to get any deeper, but Sam took every chance to do so from him.

"Dr. Collins is working with us for more than six years now – she knows Danny!"

Jack didn't have the courage to look her right in the face when he answered her question now, still not focusing on the complete truth.

"Well – as I already told you,..., his injuries are pretty severe..."

Sam was only able to react with some whispered words, but Martin was more forcefully with his reaction – asking the decisive question hanging above the whole situation.

"Good lord..."

"What the hell has happened to him!"

Jack was lucky to have the question finally announced. This was something he could inform them about without feeling like somebody was strangling him or punching him in the stomach. It almost physically hurt to be confronted with Danny's critical – physical and emotional – condition once again. But right now he was also forced to tell him what Dr. Collins had told him, what she assumed due to the injuries Danny was suffering from.

"It's pretty hard to take – I know that – but Dr. Collins told me that the injuries and their state in the process of healing indicates that they didn't occur accidentally..."

"So somebody intentionally did that to him? Why for heaven's sake? Who would do that?"

Jack swallowed hard before he went on spilling out the details Dr. Collins had given to him.

"That's not it. Dr. Collins also told me that the state of healing indicates a timeframe of at least two and a half days in which the injuries were inflicted,..., she believes Danny was tortured..."

No sound, no word, no movement – just for a second it seemed like time had frozen in this room as everyone just stood still – unable to move, unable to speak, unable to react to this new information in any way. Vivian's tone of shock and disbelief had turned to absolute horror right now and all hope had vanished from it.

"Several days of torment? ... That's not true, that's just not true. She must be wrong, Jack – she definitely is."

"She's the Dr. Viv, she knows how to do her job and she does it damn good. It's true, it happened..."

"But, why? What has he done that he ended up in a situation like this."

"I don't know, but that's what I want to find out. I want to find out why and I even more want to find out who did it!"


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Jack winced as Sam burst into his office without any warning and without a word of apology.

He had been going through the files of the latest cases Danny had been working on to find some sort of connection, some hint that would point to his attackers. Now he had been disturbed and he shot a miserable and slightly enraged look at the invader. But by her words all the hard feelings were forgotten for the moment.

"There's a call!"

"Who is it?"

He was slightly confused – the unit was receiving calls all over and she wouldn't rush in here every time the phone rang. But he had a slight feeling of knowing what this was about and why Sam was that excited about it. Maybe this was the connection he had been searching for.

"I don't know, she didn't state a name, but she asked for Danny and she made clear, that she didn't wanna talk to anyone else. She seemed pretty surprised when he didn't answer the phone – and afraid."

"Which line? Is she still hanging on?"

"She's still waiting and we're already trying to track the call. It's line 3."

Jack picked up the phone and took a moment to focus before he addressed the unknown speaker on the other end of the line. Hopefully she wouldn't hang up on him immediately, hopefully she would listen and he would get the chance to find that connection he had been searching for so desperately.

"Hello."

"Who the hell are you?"

"My name's Jack Malone – I'm Agent Taylor's superior..."

"I already told that lady that I wouldn't speak with anyone else. So where is he and why the bloody hell doesn't he answer his phone? What happened to him?"

Her last question caused Jack to remember his own one in hospital and the answer he had received from Dr. Collins. He needed some seconds to get a hold on his feelings and piece the words for an answer together. But his hesitation – the silence – seemed to last long enough to make the woman on the other end realize something. He didn't know what it was, he just could hear in her voice that she was terrified by her realization.

"Dios mio – perdoname!"

And then, without another chance for Jack to react and keep her holding the line any longer, it went dead. But his skills with Spanish were well enough to understand what she had been saying – "Lord forgive me"...

They needed to find this woman – she knew what had happened to Danny, knew it although Jack hadn't even said a single word about. She probably even knew better than he did. He rushed out of the room, shooting a questioning look at Sam, who was standing besides one of the agents from technical, tracking the call. Her words were a salvation as she finally spoke up.

"Got it! The call came from Brooklyn, a former industrial area, probably an abandoned warehouse. That's about 15 minutes from here. If we are lucky we will reach the place before she's able to escape. Maybe she doesn't even leave..."

"Sam, Martin – you gonna join me. Viv, I want you to coordinate this with the local police. I want the roads closed and everybody who is leaving the area checked. As a crude profile I'd say – female, approximately 20 to 40 with a hispanic background. We're gonna call in as soon as we're there."

With a little bit of federal pressure to local police and a lot of luck – the drive to the location of the call luckily just took them some more than ten minutes. Sam was still surprised they weren't already dead, the way the senior agent had been driving. It was obvious that he was desperate to get there as soon as ever possible. She had a look on the print with the track of the call and then had a look at the surrounding, pointing to an old, abandoned, several stocks high brick building with broken windows.

"That's gotta be it, that's where the call came from."

Jack stopped the car in front of the building and silently ordered Martin to the back entrance, he and Sam were getting inside through the front door. He ordered them to possibly not shoot at the caller – he didn't want her to get injured and he didn't believe her to be armed. He simply wanted to talk to her – find out what she knew about Danny , why she –probably- knew about his condition and in which way they were connected.

The first floor, a formerly fabrication hall was clear. There was nobody to be seen, no sign of any living, human being. Jack didn't wanna waste time. Maybe she had a position, from where she could spot them and would be warned. If she escaped they probably would never be able to find her and she – for sure – wouldn't call again.

He spotted the wooden stairs to the second floor and gave a sign to Sam to follow him. He tried to get upstairs as silent as he was able to, but the wood was old, he couldn't help the fact that it creaked. He listened carefully but he couldn't hear any sound as he arrived up there.

Suddenly, without warning and without actually expecting it, he saw a rapid movement from the corner of his eyes. She was still here! He had hoped for it, but he hadn't really believed in it. With another sign to Sam he started to follow the escaping woman. He was surprised that he hadn't heard her and that was still a bad thing – he wouldn't hear her, wouldn't hear if she hid somewhere and would sneak on him from behind. She was careful, she seemed to have known that they were coming and she had put up some security measures to not get caught.

But luck seemed to be on his side since that call had emerged. He had no idea why he did it, but by instinct he checked one of the rooms left to him first – like he knew it was the right thing to do. Gun trained at arming position, he opened the door and was confronted with a young, beautiful woman with long dark hair. Her chest was rising heavily from the running and desperation, but also fury stood in her eyes – no sign of fear. But the most important and alarming thing right now, was the fact, that she was holding a gun in her hands, directly pointing at him.

"Don't you dare to come in here. You won't get any information from me and you will never find what you're searching for! You won't force me to join you – I'd rather die than join you by will! The truth will be revealed – no matter what you do – or what you've already done... Goddamn bastard! Nice move – that phone call."

He had no idea what she was talking about, but the one thing he knew was, that she believed he was somebody else than he actually was, someone who wanted to harm her, or even kill her. He needed to convince her, that he just wanted to talk to her, that he really was with the FBI and that he wouldn't harm her. What he was doing next was a risky thing, but he really needed her to trust him and he needed her to believe him that she could do that. He lowered his arm, holding the gun, put it down and defensively rose his hands.

"I'm not here to harm you and I don't want any documents. I'm not who you think I am. We have been talking on the phone and I really am with the FBI. I just wish to talk to you, want to know which connection you got to Agent Taylor. I need to find out what happened..."

He looked in her face and saw the feelings of desperation and anger die down. Surprise appeared on her face and she really seemed to listen to him. She listened to what he said, but she wouldn't put down her gun, she wouldn't trust him. He needed to find some prove, some way to make her lower her gun, before Sam or Martin would find them and the situation would escalate.

"What the hell did happen – what happened to Agent Taylor? Why didn't he answer his phone?"

He would tell her the truth. He was pretty sure – due to her reaction on the phone – that she already had an idea of what had happened to Danny. She probably was pretty near to the actual reality with her thoughts.

"Agent Taylor,..., he's in hospital – he was severely injured and the doctors aren't sure he's gonna survive..."

He didn't even need any more words to try to convince her. His answer seemed to let her physically break down. He had no idea what caused her reaction, but he believed to see guilt flash in her eyes. She lowered her gun and heavily sat down on the wooden chair near the window.

"Good lord – what have I done?"


	8. Chapter 8

A.N.: Yet another chapter…

I wanted to take the chance and thank all of you people for your very kind reviews. You make my day!

Now – on with the story.

Chapter 8:

Jack had taken the unknown female back to the department. She hadn't insisted, she hadn't struggled and she hadn't said a word, she seemed deeply sorry about what Jack last had told her. He didn't clearly get why, but the young woman definitely felt responsible for what had happened to Danny in some way – he just wasn't sure why.

He had lead her to one of the interrogation rooms and had told her he would be back in a few moments. He had hoped for her to show some reaction to the surrounding she was brought to, but there was nothing after all. Like she was used to it, like it didn't scare her after all.

As he reentered the room – all alone – he had no idea, not even a slight feeling about how this would proceed. If she would be cooperative or not, if she would give information to him or not, but the one thing he knew was, that she was the one decisive connection he had been searching for and he would make her talk – no matter what. He had a serious tone in his voice when he addressed her first, not allowing any word of insistance.

"First of all – who are you?"

His worries about her will to help him were vanishing to dust right now as she put a small, sad smile on her face. Her voice was low and he could still hear that emotion of guilt and sadness in it, but she was answering his question.

"My name's Elizabeth Tejar. Just call me 'Beth'. I'm a private detective, that's my profession. I have been assigned by a Chilean non governmental organization in search for "los desaparecidos". You ever heard about that?"

"Yes, I heard about it."

"Then you do know that it's the idiom to be used for those who have been taken by their own government, have been tortured, killed and thrown into some hole in the earth without anyone ever finding them. It's a euphemism – no doubt about that."

"Definitely... but what's that got to do with you exactly?"

"I'm in search of a group of people who lead an isolated prison in the Chilean back-country, where the civilians fighting against the system were brought at. The organization has proof of about 250 people that were murdered there – kidnapped, tortured, broken, executed and buried in some nameless, dishonorable mass-grave.

Their corpses have been found about four months ago, when the organization finally was able to detect the location of the prison. Their families – mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives and husbands finally have been able to bury their loved ones on a grave yard, in holy ground, with a grave stone that states their names. They finally have a chance to properly grieve...

I'm here to find the persons responsible for that massacre and call them to their account, to get them in front of a court so they finally will be sentenced for what they have done. I'm here to serve justice."

Jack started to understand how Danny fit into that puzzle, he understood how he had gotten involved in this. He could feel emotions rise up inside of him – Danny probably just had wanted to help, had wanted to support Elizabeth Tejar in her wish to serve justice and find these Chilean criminals. He hadn't done anything wrong, but he had ended up in hospital fighting for his life and with lifelong consequences none the less. The injustice of it all made his voice tremble as he went on questioning the private detective.

"But you couldn't find them. That's why you were in contact with Agent Taylor, you asked him to help you."

"That's right. I mean I had some information about them, I knew they were living in the States, in New York and I hoped to find out any more information, but I had to experience that my possibilities were extremely restricted. I didn't even get a step closer to them. It was that extremely frustrating – I had all this information about what they had been doing, about their crimes, I had proof – goddamn it, but I didn't have a damn chance to track them down. That's why I asked Agent Taylor for help."

"How did you get to know each other anyway?"

"Let's say it happened by accident. I have an apartment downtown and it appears we are living next door. We got a chance to talk a little and I don't even know how we got there, but he told me about his profession. That's when the idea first came to me, but I didn't ask him right then. I tried myself for some more time, but I finally had to realize that I needed a more professional help. I have been careful – we have been talking about Chile, I told him about the organization... Finally I asked him and he agreed to help me almost immediately."

"But why have you been hiding in that abandoned warehouse and why have you been threatening me with a gun? Who did you believe I was?"

"I had to, I thought they would find me at home. I knew something was wrong – Agent Taylor was supposed to call me Friday evening to tell me if he had made any progress, but he never did. I tried to catch him at home, but he hadn't been there for the whole weekend. I was pretty sure it was their work, that they had kidnapped him… I believed he had been talking, Agent Taylor I mean. I believed he had betrayed me to them, had told them where I was living. I believed it was a trap when I called you, I believed you had been hired by these men to track me down and kill me. They wanted the information I have – the pictures and documents – they wanted all this proof to vanish. That's why I thought they came after me, that's why I was hiding, that's why I threatened you with the gun. And I meant what I said: I'd rather die than give the information I have to them or be taken alive. I know about their methods of torture – they could break anybody. And I didn't want to reveal anything to them, I rather would've given my life."

"Your reaction on the phone. As I didn't tell you immediately what happened to Agent Taylor – you knew it. You knew what happened?"

He could see the emotion on her face, barely kept under control. It was a mixture of fury, desperation – and guilt. Her voice trembled as she answered and he could see how she clenched her fists until her knuckles went white.

"Yes I knew, I knew damn well – probably into the last sickening detail. I have seen what these miserable bastards have been doing to their victims, I've seen so many pictures and read so many reports – it makes one feel sick. Good lord, I'm so sorry! I didn't see it coming, I couldn't even imagine this to happen. He had promised me to be careful and I never had believed that these people would get after a federal agent. They are extremely careful, I believed they wouldn't have wanted to draw any attention. But Agent Taylor obviously rather got too close to them or he didn't care about my advice and was incautious. It doesn't matter anyway – it happened, we can't do anything against it anymore."

"Yes we can – we can track these bastards down. And that's what we're going to do!"


	9. Chapter 9

A.N.: Thanks for all of your wonderful reviews and sorry for the delay. I just started a new

job last week and it has been kind of hard to adjust…

And now – on with the story.

Chapter 9:

It had taken him a lot of courage and time to think about, but Jack finally had decided not to let NYPD deal with the measure of Danny's protection. He wanted FBI to take care of him, and – to be exact – he wanted his department, his team take care of him. He wanted someone to be there for Danny when he woke up, someone he knew and trusted in.

But although he was doing this for his fallen agent's sake, he was putting a lot of pressure and a pretty hard time on somebody else by being forced to see Danny the way he was right now and being forced to deal with it. But he had carefully taken that into consideration and he had seen no other way.

Right now he had ordered Sam and Vivian to meet him at his office to tell them what he wanted them to do. Elizabeth Tejar had all the information they needed to track down Danny's attackers and he didn't need all of the team to investigate. Chances were there to send someone to hospital. But still Jack was nervous – nervous about the two womens' reaction and he was even more afraid of their reaction when they would come back from hospital...

He no longer had the time to develop any more doubts, when the two women entered his office. Both of them had an expectant, curious and still concerned look on their faces. He hadn't told them what this would be about and as Danny's condition was critical and the reason for his presence in hospital was unbelievably cruel – as Elizabeth Tejar had just told them, there still was a chance something grave had happened that he wanted to tell them. He asked the two to sit down and gave them an expressionless gaze before he started, not giving them a chance to read in his face.

"I would like to ask you to a favor... It's a pretty delicate thing and I know it's probably hard to take, but I would like you two to get to the hospital and take care of Danny's protection. I'm worried these guys who did that to him, may come back on him to finish what they started..."

Vivian looked slightly annoyed and an expression of disbelief had appeared on her face. Sam didn't look any different. Jack just realized that maybe he had been a bit too eager in protecting the two women from what they were about to see at the hospital. But it was too late to change it any more and Vivian was already about to blame him for his words.

"A delicate thing...? Good lord, Jack did you hear yourself talking? You really believe you need to ask this as a favor? Of course we're gonna go there and take care of him!"

"I didn't mean it like this, Viv. I have been there and I know it's a tough thing... you didn't see him, didn't see his lifeless form in that goddamn hospital bed in ICU. I just want you two to be prepared."

Sam joined the conversation now – Jack believed to hear a slight tone of aggression, but it wasn't able to hide her actual fear, to hide that his words threatened her. She seemed to actually believe him, believe that he didn't overreact and that was a pretty tough thing to deal with after all.

"So, you think we need preparation? You think we can't deal with it?"

"No, I don't think so, but I want you to understand that it's,..., not a pretty sight at all..."

"Then why do you want us to go there anyway?"

"Because I don't want him to be alone and because I believe he is in desperate need of protection. I want someone to be there for him, someone he knows. I want him to know we're there for him..."

A sad little smile appeared on both the womens' faces as empathy rushed over them. It took a moment of silence before Vivian would respond to his revelation.

"That's a noble reason... Don't worry, Jack – we can deal with it."

He didn't want to say anything else about it, but just nodded. The two were getting up from the chairs in front of his desk and left his office, carefully closing the door and not make a sound – leaving him alone with his thoughts.

They arrived at the hospital about half an hour later and it was plain for everyone to see, that their tension had grown. Although both had been astonished and had felt slightly offended by Jack's words – still they had sunken in... Jack had been right with one thing – they really had no idea what was awaiting them. Of course Jack had told them Danny was in hospital and Elizabeth Tejar's testemony had made clear that his injuries were pretty severe, but still they weren't prepared for what they would see.

They had both been that eager, that willing to get here and take care of their co-worker, their friend, but right now every given hesitation was welcome to both of them. Actually being at hospital was something completely different than talking about it...

Simply the smell and the look of the surrounding – the whole feelings and impressions it transported, it was hard to take. It was hard to take in any case, but in their particular one... It was almost unbearable. But they had no more chance to escape it, no more chance to change their minds for Dr. Collins was just approaching to them. Jack had called her earlier and she had agreed to meet them and lead them upstairs to ICU.

They received a sad, tired smile and a faint clasp of hand as she greeted them. She looked terrible – like she hadn't been sleeping in days. And as she was the one in responsibility for Danny's care, both of the women had the same uneasy feeling, that the doctor's outward appearance had something to do with their co-worker's condition.

"Agent Johnson, Agent Spade – I'm gonna take you upstairs..."

Sam was barely able to get out a single word and she could hear her own raspy voice asking a question, but it felt to her like she wasn't really present, like she heard herself talking from far away. She still was fixed on the doctor's pale face and tired eyes. Still somehow her own words brought her back to reality.

"How is he?"

Dr. Collins was hesitating for a few moments before she answered to her question – whether it was because she didn't want to answer or because she really needed to think about it, Sam couldn't tell. But she couldn't believe the doctor would wish to keep anything "ugly" from them. They were all grown up and capable of hearing it. It couldn't be that bad...

"Have you been informed about the actual details of Agent Taylor's injuries?"

Sam didn't like the tone of her words – the way she pronounced the word "injuries" send a shiver down her spine. She had known that the doctor had diagnosed Danny's injuries as inflicted by torment, but the way she spoke about it, Sam couldn't even imagine the severeness of his condition. She was barely able to keep her voice from trembling as she answered to Dr. Collins' question.

"The one thing we both know is that his injuries are pretty severe and that he's in a coma. We were told that his condition is critical and you are not sure of his survival. And we also have been told that you believe he was tortured..."

"So you don't know anything about the details, Agent Malone didn't tell you about it. Then I just want to warn you – although you probably have heard this already – it's pretty hard to take. I know that sounds cruel, but it's really not a pretty thing to deal with... I just want you to be prepared."

"We already have been prepared to a pretty good extend, Dr. Collins. Would you just take us to ICU and let us take care of our co-worker?"

"Sure, I will."

She led them to the elevators and they waited in silence for the doors to open. As Dr. Collins pushed the button to fourth floor, where ICU lay – not looking at them at that moment - she spoke once again. Her voice was sounding low and shallow, the tiredness in it clearly audible.

"I may tell you that you cannot enter the room, at least not like this. As I already told your superior – Agent Taylor is barely alive and I won't risk an infection. Nobody's allowed to enter his room if not absolutely necessary and even in that case the person has to wear sterile clothing. The risk of an infection is just too high and it would definitely kill him. I just wanted you to know this."

The elevator doors opened and they stepped out of it, following Dr. Collins down a corridor to a pair of closed glass doors. The doctor got out an identity card from her coat and zipped it through a reading machine besides the door. As the doors silently opened, they entered ICU and Dr. Collins led them to the wide examination window giving free sight to Danny's room. Right now Sam came to realize, what Jack - and the doctor too - had meant. They really weren't prepared after all.

The person in that hospital bed had nothing in common with the fellow agent, who had still been at work with them before this weekend. Although most of his injuries were hidden beneath the blanket covering his body, the sheer sight of his still, helpless form was overwhelmingly agitating.

But that wasn't the most sickening thing about his sight. All those machines around him, somehow connected to his body and helping him to survive the extreme trauma his body had been forced to go through weren't making it any easier to cope with the situation. Of course both of the women knew that the life support was necessary, just that it looked more like all these IV lines, tubes and needles were hurting him, than that they were actually helpful.

The worst thing however was the part of the injuries, which were visible – the cuts and bruises on his face distorting his features, the tube rising from his throat and the bandages protecting the deeper wounds from infection. It wasn't fair to even think it, it was unsensitive – but he looked awful.

Dr. Collins had an intensive look at both the womens' faces and she immediately realized that they hadn't been prepared for the sight of their co-worker in any way, no matter how much they had believed they were. She put a gentle tone in her voice, trying not to disturb them any further.

"You don't need to stay here both. Maybe you want to stay here in shifts?"

Vivian nodded to the proposal without looking at the female doctor, her eyes fixed on her fallen co-worker. Jack had been right, this was really hard to take and they had not been in any way aware of that before they had come here and seen it themselves. She managed to turn to Samantha and the expression on her face clearly told her she shouldn't stay here.

"I'm gonna stay. Maybe you should get back to the office, helping with the investigation."

Samantha didn't seem completely aware of Vivian addressing her, but she didn't insist. She wasn't able to do much of a thing anyway – she just reacted in the way with the less resistance, nodding to the proposal being made.

"Yeah. Sure."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

The surrounding had changed around him, but he wasn't even frightened by the sudden and unbelievable change. He had just closed his eyes for a moment and all of a sudden the forest he had just been in seconds ago was gone.

It was a beach and he had the strange feeling he knew this place from somewhere, had been there before. It was warm around here, but not hot – it was comfortable. He was sitting in the warm sand, looking at the calm sea and smelling the fragrance of salt and water all around him.

He felt sheltered – as sheltered as he had felt in the forest and this place actually was even more comfortable. It reminded him of his youth, his childhood – the days, when life had still been easy, when he had simply been a boy playing with his elder brother and being loved by his parents. It reminded him of lucky, carefree and innocent times – times long gone.

He felt the urgent wish to get up, get out of his shoes and walk throught the wet sand and the water down at the shore. Logic told him that it was the middle of winter and that this was the atlantic ocean – it was most definitely freezing cold. But the sun was shining right now and he felt comfortable – why shouldn't it be the same with the salty water?

He felt like he needed to be here, like this place had just been designed for him, like someone or something had realised he wasn't completely comfortable with his former surrounding and had transferred him to this place. If it was even possible, he felt better around here, better than he had done before.

He was grateful for the sounds, he really had missed them in that forest – it had simply been unnatural. But right here and now he was able to hear the water – the soft waves rushing over the shore and creating this soothing tone, people could fall asleep very easy. He had missed that sound – although Manhattan was an island, it had nothing to do with the experience and memories he knew from his childhood days.

It was just beautiful around here, though it was as surreal as the other place. There was nobody else around – he was all alone – and once again he didn't feel concerned about it. At this new place he barely seemed able to remember what concern felt like – what an unpleasant feeling was after all, what pain was. He was free of all these things around here, rid of them and the starting process of forgetting about them was simply just wonderful.

He didn't care about the fact that there were no people, no houses – no sign of civilization after all and no further sound than the water connecting with the shore. He enjoyed it – this moment all for himself – without thinking about it, without bothering or worrying.

He was sure that if he would give it some time, he would even forget the name of all these unpleasant emotions he had been forced to cope with before he had been allowed to enter this place. He was overwhelmed by the numerous different things there were to feel – agitation, fear, sadness, grieve, desperation, hopelessness, anger, uncertainty, embarassement, frustration...

There were so many of them and although they were a normal process and part of everyone's life, they seemed completely pointless around here. There was no need to feel them, not at this place, not now and hopefully not ever again. He smiled by that thought – an honest, content smile.

He got up from the spot on the warm sand he had been sitting at, slipping out of his shoes and doing what he had been planning on – slowly walking down to the beach and carefully testing the temperature of the water. It was unlogical, but the water was warm, in the same comfortable way the sand and the sun had been.

He just stood there for a moment, having the water flow around his feet, closing his eyes to focus all his senses on the sound of the rushing water and the fragrance of the salty sea water. It was a moment of peace – a moment of inner silence, he hadn't been able to grant himself in a long time.

He had to admit that he was tired. All this comfortable feelings he had and the complete lack of anything he was able to complain about had left him tired. He just wished to lay down, close his eyes and take some moments of relaxation, but something very deep inside of him told him it was dangerous to do so, although he had no idea why this would be.

This was a safe haven and he was all alone – nobody would attack him here, nobody would harm him... He pushed the nagging feeling aside, sat back down, leaned back, falling into the sand and closed his eyes. Just a moment, just one more moment...


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

Jack and Beth had sat down in his office, taking a chance to get through her part of the evidence, while he had sent Martin and another agent to check Danny's apartment for any other form of evidence, he had been able to gather for Elizabeth.

However the young woman was clinging to her backpack holding the files of her investigation like her life was depending on it. The situation was tense for she obviously still didn't trust him completely and she seemed to feel uncomfortable – although he had no idea if it was because she was alone with him or because she had to share her evidence with him. He couldn't put a finger on her motivation. But he tried to get some of the tension out of the situation, starting a conversation.

How long have you been working on this case?"

She thought about it for a moment, before she came up with a surprisingly exact answer to his question.

„2 years, six months and sixteen days."

He gave her a surprised look, but didn't say anything. She was obviously very dedicated, otherwise she wouldn't have counted on the amount of time, it had taken her to make some progress for all these families who were waiting for her back in Chile.

She finally decided to give in and try to relax – convincing herself that showing him the information wouldn't do any harm. This was their only thing to find anything useful on Danny's attackers right now and she knew that. She was willing to share it.

„That's all the information I was able to gather. Unfortunatelly most of it is pretty old."

She handed the thick file to him with extreme care and some hesitation – like she was afraid to give it away. He could understand that. From what she had just told him – this were two and a half years of her life, he was holding in hands, and a hell lot of responsibility - for she had herself assigned to serve justice in the name of more then twohundred people. They were all relying on her.

„That's pretty impressive."

„Not really – most of this has been gathered with the help of the families I represent."

She was modest and obviously she felt uncomfortable about his compliment. He could understand it however – he of all people, whose agent under his care was fighting for his life right now because she had asked for her help, was making her compliments. But her modesty and discomfort was completely out of place. She had done really good work, he had seen his own agents work sloppier on cases.

„You're dedicated, Elizabeth – extremely dedicated."

„If you would have spoken with the mothers of dead sons and the husbands of dead wifes, you wouldn't do your work in any other way... I have never seen so much grieve – and hatred. They have a good reason though and they have the right to get some justice – after more than twenty years of waiting and trying to forget."

She was most definitely right, but still he didn't lose the feeling that she simply didn't feel comfortable around him. He wouldn't push her any further. If she didn't want his compliments, he wouldn't bother her with them. They had better things to do anyway – they had to find some hint to Danny's attackers' residence.

„How did you get to know this group of people was here?"

„It was an anonymous hint, probably someone close to them, who had refound his conscience after more than twenty years. It took an amount of money to get this information however – maybe he wasn't that conscientious after all."

„But you have been able to track them down to a certain area – you know that they are in New York City."

„It took a lot of pressure, warnings, threats and even more money, but I was able to get that information, yes. But as soon as I was here I simply didn't get any further with my investigations... You know the rest of the story already."

He wouldn't start this part of the conversation over again. There was no need for her to blame herself. Instead of giving in to it, he took the file and had a closer look at it. His reaction – the look on his face – caused her to smile at him.

„I'm sorry – I didn't even think of it."

She was referring to the documents held in the file – and as she was a Chile native, there actually wasn't much of any surprise about it – they were mostly in Spanish. The file wouldn't be of much use for him then – he couldn't help her search through it, he wasn't capable of that language. And she most definitely didn't need to read through it again. He had that certain feeling she knew most of the file's content by heart.

„Maybe you could just tell me what you know about them?"

„There are four of them, but the most important ones are Cristobal Adamén and Francesco de Vierra. They were the ones leading the imprisonment camp in Chile. The other two are simply handy men, but they are clever enough to take another name whenever they get to a new place. Adamén and de Vierra however are too proud of themselves and their skills´, they never changed their names."

„What do you know about them?"

„Adamén is the head of the group. He was born 14th November 1942 in Cuzco, Ecuador. He's an academic, studied philosophy and history in Britian, at Oxford university. Afterwards he married a Chilean woman – she was the daughter of the secretary of defense during the dictatorship. He's known as a very polite man, he never got loud or insulting with any of his victims, but that doesn't make him less dangerous or cruel. He's not the type to inflict physical pain, but he's good with words – he manages to get to the very core of your emotion, frightening you to death only with words... He has a passion for ancient languages – latin, greek and so on. So we most probably find him near some good sorted library or university – he can't withstand the reading challenge."

He once again felt impressed and uncomfortable at the same time. She had obviously realized that, it was what had made her stop in the description of how he acted around his victims. The latest events were just too fresh and grave to not take this personal immediately. But all the information she had gathered beyond that - it was simply impressive.

She gave him an almost shy and somehow troubled look and it had probably something to do with the other man she had to inform him about. He wasn't sure if he wanted to find out. Hearing about Adamén hadn't been all too pleasant already.

„Francesco de Vierra however is a completely different matter. In my mind he's simply just sick, very very sick. He's at the age of 35 today, has only been 18 when he was assigned to the imprisonment camp. He's a working class guy, never finished school, but was in favor with the political party and got the assignement through important friends of his uncle, who had him under his wings. He's the one for the rough, the one who had a lot of fun in inflicting physical pain. He was chosing from a wide variety of different torture methods... I guess it's not that important.

He however has a certain animosity for pornography, I guess that comes with the mental illness or whatever else it is that caused him to torture more than two hundred people to death... He's most likely to be found in an area where prostitution is wide spreading - maybe he even killed someone around at that area. Might be worth looking into."

She had done it again – stopping in the middle of her explanation about how people had been tortured and killed by these two men. She was simply trying to spare him all the sickening information she had and he was grateful for that, but yet he couldn't help it, but ask more further.

„He's gay –isn't he? deVierra?"

The way she looked at him, clearly told him that she hadn't wanted him to ask that or answer it. She was extremly discomforted about the question, probably because she knew there was only one explanation for why he knew about it. But she answered his question, her voice barely surpressing the disgust.

„Yes he is, though he was never able to admit it to anyone close to him, especially not to his extremely conservative uncle. He probably would have had him killed for that. However he found his very own, sick way to deal with it."

„I'm aware of that."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

Jack had left Elizabeth for some time after she had told him about the two men. He needed a few things to get in motion – coordinating with police, seeing if there had been any murders lately – trying to find some way to track these two bastards down as soon as possible. He had asked Martin to head over to Danny's apartment, trying to find out if he had been able to gather any information on the two men, too. Although the younger agent's expression had clearly told him he was uncomfortable with the demand, he had agreed without questioning.

Samantha had returned while he had been talking to Beth and although he only had managed to get a short look at her, he had clearly seen by the expression on her face that she was shook up. She hadn't been that prepared for the visit in hospital, although she had told him that. He was sorry about it – he hadn't wanted her to go through this, but from the reaction of both women – it had been inevitable...

Samantha however had taken the chance of having a talk with Elizabeth while she was alone. The visit in hospital had left her with about a million questions and even more and deeply disturbing imaginations and thoughts. She needed someone who could tell her some definite things,who knew what had been going on. She needed some certainty, even if it would be troubling and painful to listen to it, but she needed to know.

She left her desk, crossing the wide room and directly heading to Jack's office. Her superior still hadn't returned, which left her the time to talk with the other woman sitting inside there. She gently opened the door, facing Elizabeth and hoped that the smile she tried to force on her face, was a friendly one.

„Miss Tejar?"

„Just call me Beth."

"Okay – uhm – Beth… What happened?"

"I'm, sorry…?"

"To Agent Taylor? What happened to him?"

"I don't think…"

"Please – I know it's hard, but I need to know. Please tell me what you know, tell me what happened to him!"

Beth reached into her backpack by her side and got out a case she put on the table. She took

it in her hands, opened it and flipped through the documents inside of it and fetched one. She had a deadly serious expression on her face when she closed the file again and pushed the picture above the table into Sam's direction.

She couldn't keep herself from breathing in deeply and swallowing hard when she detected what the picture was showing. It was a photography of probably 20 to 30 years of age. It was showing a close up, black and white picture of a young and definitely dead chilean male.

The man's face was bruised and both his arms and his left leg lay in a sickening wrong angle – they definitely had been broken. There were deep cuts and burn marks showing on his body and in having a closer look, one could detect that he was missing a finger, his hand looking infected. It had most definitely been a form of torment. The expression on his face – contorted in pain and hopelessness - showed that he must have died a horrible death.

"This man was a journalist, being in favour with the opponent political party and writing about the dictatorship as what it was – a cruel form of surpressing their own citizens. He was taken from his own house in the middle of the night and taken to the imprisonment camp I did my research on. His wife and four year old daughter had been taken alongside with him. They were executed in front of his very eyes.

Samantha pushed the picture aside, giving it back to Elizabeth and swallowed hard. But she managed to look the other woman in the eyes trying not to show her feelings to her and stay strong.

"Are you sure you wanna know?"

She wouldn't give up on this now, she would go for it. No matter how hard it would become and how much she would wish for Beth to stop in what she would be telling her. The doctor – as careful and sympathic as she had been – had only been able to give medical details. But that wasn't what Sam actually wanted to hear about. She needed to know what had happened during that two days of Danny's disappearance, what he had gone through. Beth was able to tell her…

"Yes, I'm absolutely sure."

Beth nodded silently as she took the picture away, back to the file and to her backpack. She hesitated some more seconds as she seemed to think about a way to start this, a way to tell her about the cruelties and unbelievable things that had happened during these two days. A way to give her a chance to cope with what she would get to know.

"Alright then… as I already told you the picture you have just seen is from a secret imprisonment camp in Chile. Opponents of the government – individual people, politics and private groups, were taken there. Whole families just vanished from their houses in the middle of the night. That's where they woke up the next morning..."

She looked into Samantha's face, immediately understanding that she started to talk in rage – rage about what had happened in her home country. However that wasn't what the young woman sitting opposite of her was interested in. She needed to keep that in mind.

"To make a long story short – the camp was just like a prison. Apart from the fact that people were tortured there, brutally tortured – till they died. It was the job of the ones in responsibility of this camp to gather information – in every way possible. They chose this way. Now – the people leading these camps and being responsible for the torment are the people, I was sent here to search for."

"And you believe these are the same people who are responsible for Danny's injuries?"

"I don't believe so, I know it – as I had asked him to help me find them. It was definitely them, the whole list of injuries shows their handwriting."

"Their handwriting... Why did they do it, why?"

Elizabeth was showing her a sympathetic smile, but her voice didn't have any sign of emotion in it as she answered her question.

"For information gathering. They most definitely knew I was looking for them and I guess they wanted to know how close I had managed to get to them."

"And you believe they got that information from him?"

"From the injuries he sustained and the enormous amount of pain he had been forced to go through, I think it's most definitely impossible that he was able to hide back the information he knew about..."

"He's strong, you know..."

"Everybody is breakable Agent Spade, it's simply a matter of time and the amount of pain put on one's body. After a certain period of time one would do anything to make the pain go away. Anything."

"Then tell me about it, tell me what happened to him."

Flashback

He could feel the pain – every last muscle in his body seemed to ache all over and there was nothing he could do about it. He wasn't even able to shift into a more comfortable position – he couldn't do anything against the pain. He desperately wished for some sort of sedative, something to soothe the pain, but he wouldn't get any of those things. He needed to pull through this, needed to endure the pain – there was nothing else left for him to do.

He knew they would come back, he knew they would hurt him again – they would hurt him as long as he would not tell them what he knew about Elizabeth and if he did they would kill him. He knew what this was all about, Elizabeth had told him. All this pain was simply about breaking into his mind, breaking his will – pushing him to the point where he would finally give in and tell them everything they wanted to know.

He was afraid – he couldn't keep that from himself, although he had sworn to himself he would be strong and just endure. But the injuries they had brought on him, the injuries he could still feel – his throbbing legs, lying in a completely wrong angle and causing spasms in his muscles, the cuts on his forearms and back and the blood from it, which had flown onto the bedsheet under him, sticking to it and causing it to hurt even more, when he tried to move in bed.

The most uncomfortable thing right now, was his broken wrist. He was still bound to the damn bed and he was not able to move his hand anymore, trying to keep his circulation going. The steel wire they had newly attached to his arms cut into his already injured wrist and it really hurt like hell. He couldn't do anything about it. The one thing he could have done was to scream in pain, but he wouldn't give them that satisfaction.

He was thirsty, he was so goddamn thirsty. The last thing he had to drink had been a cup of coffee about two hours before he had left from work to get home. He had no idea how long ago that was, but as he was in desperate need of some water, feeling the dry tickling in his throat he couldn't seem to get rid of. But he wouldn't ask them for some, he wouldn't ask anything from them. He got a chance right at that moment as the men returned to the room.

"Agent Taylor – have we been able to change your opinion?"

He didn't answer the question, unwilling to talk to his attacker. He wouldn't give him any form of satisfaction, he wouldn't talk to this man like under given circumstances it was actually possible to have a normal conversation – which was exactly what his assailant seemed to believe. As he spoke up again however, there seemed a slight tone of annoyance in his voice.

"You can make this as pleasant or unpleasant as you want it to be – it's all your decision. All I am asking from you as an answer to a very simple question. What do you know about Elizabeth Tejar?"

"I don't know anyone with that name."

"Come now, Agent Taylor, stop lying to me. That's not very polite, I haven't given you any reason to treat me like that."

"Yeah, except from kidnapping, locking me up in some dark room and torturing me – no, you didn't give me any reason."

"I didn't do any of those things. I'm only asking you questions."

"Well – I won't answer your questions."

"I'm sorry to hear that. Then I don't see any other option than to leave you alone with the two gentlemen you already have come in contact with."

Danny swallowed hard, but didn't say a single thing. He was afraid, but he told himself over and over again not to have anyone notice that fact. He needed his strength to stand up against his opponents as long as he could – at least literally.

"And I will once again have the politeness to tell you what is going to happen to you. The tool the man next to you is holding in hands is a branding iron – I don't think I need to tell you what he is going to do with it."

He had burned himself once – he had been a child when it happened, playing with Rafael. They had rushed through the kitchen where his mother had been cooking dinner. He had put a hand down on the hot stove and it had hurt like hell. The scar was still visible on his hand...

He couldn't imagine what this would feel like. The last time he had been surprised by the pain that rushed over him when he had hurt himself, but this would be done to him intentionally – he knew what was going to happen next and he had no chance to escape it.

"Any second thoughts, Agent Taylor?"

He didn't want this to happen, he didn't want to be hurt like that, but he knew he couldn't prevent it. These people weren't fair, they had no sense for dignity and justice. He could tell them whatever he knew and they would kill him immediately, probably injure him none the less before they would do so.

"I didn't think you would have."

Seconds after Adamén had decided to give a last remark to Danny's unwillingness, the hot iron was brought down on his already beaten and throbbing body. He could hear the sickening sound of the metal connecting with his exposed flesh and the agonizing feeling of pain left him with nothing else to do, but scream.

End of flashback


	13. Chapter 13

Martin felt uncomfortable, he had felt uncomfortable when Jack had first asked him to head over to Danny's place, he had felt like this when he had headed over there and he still wasn't feeling any different, now that he had arrived there.

He realized he had never been here before – of course that wasn't much of any surprise. There had never been any reason for it. Taking their working hours into consideration, the long nights at the office and the lack of much of any private life, this had never left much of any chance to get close to each other.

He didn't want to be here – he felt like he had no right to do so. This was Danny's private life and he did know almost nothing about it. He couldn't even claim himself being a friend – a friend wouldn't feel uncomfortable in the other person's dwelling and he would know at least something about the other one's private life – Martin didn't fit either of those things.

This place looked like Danny barely lived here, which – when thinking about it – was exactly right. Martin's own dwelling didn't look much different – it was the simple amount of time their job took from them. It didn't leave much time to get the place messed up. It didn't leave much time for anything actually...

But Danny had managed to find some time to help a young southamerican woman in need and he had taken that time to find her some useful evidence. He had simply wanted to help her out and now he had to live with the consequences of his actions – consequences he never even saw emerging and that were screaming of injustice...

Martin managed to keep the thoughts about Danny's condition at bay and took a few more steps through the rooms. He didn't want to search through them – he didn't even know where to start. He didn't wanna step over something absolutely private he had no right to know about.

He could literally imagine Danny still being around here and that's what mainly caused this feeling of being an invader, an unwanted, annoying guest in a housing he didn't belong to. Danny's presence – more the lack of it – was all over the place. It was that absolutely silent around here...

He took his time to take a close look at the single rooms of the dwelling, walking through it. He wasn't even sure why he was doing it, they didn't have any time to waste and it was necessary that he would find this evidence. But he did it none the less, he scanned through the rooms for no apparent reason... Actually there was a reason, but he didn't wanna admit it – it was pure curiousity.

He wished to know at least something about the man who lived here and who was fighting for his very life right now just because of one innocent decision. He wasn't even sure why he felt that urgent wish – maybe it was the simple fear of losing his co-worker without ever being able to get to know him better. He was interrupted in his thoughts as the other agent with him came up to him.

„I found it."

Martin was surprised by the other agent's statement. He had expected this search to take much longer, become much more difficult. But obviously Danny hadn't bothered to hide the information he had gathered for Elizabeht away. But it once again showed to them, that Danny had – in no way – expected to be in danger. He hadn't even seen this whole events coming, he had felt safe.

The other agent handed him the envelope containing Danny's investigation results. It had Elizabeth's name on it and a couple of words in Spanish, Martin wasn't capable of translating. Elizabeth would know whatever Danny had wanted to tell her, as soon as he got the results to her.

„I'm gonna get this back to the office."


	14. Chapter 14

Martin had returned from Danny's apartment and Jack was relieved to see that he had been successful. But he didn't seem to feel very triumphant about it. Jack could understand his reaction. Being forced to enter his fallen co-worker's apartment and search through it, wasn't anything particularly pleasant to do.

Jack thanked him, taking the file from him and turning on him to get back to his private office. He had left Elizabeth waiting there for him. He was actually pretty lucky about the discovery; Elizabeth's investigation results hadn't been very much helpful so far – especially for him as most of it was written in Spanish. He returned to his, putting the file to the desk.

„We found this at his apartment. It contains his investigation results – all the information he was able to gather on the Chileans."

„Then he obviously didn't take my warning to heart... Goddamn it! I told him to be careful."

Although it sounded that way, the expression on Beth's face clearly showed Jack, that she wasn't angry with Danny. It looked more like she was blaming herself for what had happened to him. She had been the one who had asked him for help and now he was in hospital, fighting for his life. Surely – she had warned him, but still that hadn't kept him from suffering.

He wasn't sure he should say anything about it. Beth was a strong woman, she didn't need his sympathy for she definitely knew how to cope with the situation around her. Apart from that they weren't here to talk about who's fault it was that Danny had been injured. They were here to find the ones responsible.

"He has been – otherwise this information wouldn't have been where they were any more. If he would have told them, the Chileans had taken this information and you would probably be dead by now."

"What kind of a choice is that – now he's the one fighting for his life."

He sighed inwardly, deciding to – although he didn't know this woman very well – say some words of support. He wasn't sure how she would react to it, if she would appreciate it or if she would simply be angry with him. However, she had been the one starting it, showing her emotions clearly and he simply felt like he had to react to it.

"What happened to Danny isn't your fault."

She looked up from the evidence right in his eyes. Surprise was showing on her face, but she didn't seem angry. She stopped meddling through the papers in front of her and took the time to talk to him, her attention fully focused on him.

"I know that – it's this group of murderers' fault. But it's still me who asked him for help. If I would have managed to get **my** things done on my own, we wouldn't be sitting here, talking about it right now."

"You didn't do anything wrong, Elizabeth. You asked him for help on a good deed and he agreed to help you for the very same reason – to do a good deed."

"Yeah – and then he was kidnapped on his way home, held prisoner and being tortured for almost three days, just to be dumped off in front of some hospital barely alive and fighting for that last bit of life they left him, right now at this moment. Isn't that a noble reward for helping me?"

She sounded extremely bitter and she had every right and reason to do so. Her voice's tone told him that this wasn't the first time something like this had happened, that she probably had lost people along the way already, people who simply had been just and heartful enough to be willing to help her.

"No it is not, but it happened none the less, we can't change that any more, but we can provide it from happening again to anyone. We can find them."

He seemed to have found the right answer to her desperate and cynical outburst. She took the document - Martin had brought - from his hand and gave him an excusing smile before she opened it, a sad smile appearing on her face for some reason.

"He stuck to my request... I asked to take the notes in Spanish – my reading English isn't very good, it just takes too much time to translate."

"I guess I won't be able to help you then."

"Actually you can... I'm sorry to say that, but your Agent Taylor has a terrible handwriting."

She smiled at him for a few more moments, leaving him unsure if she had been joking or if she really meant for him to help her. Actually he couldn't remember the last time he had seen some handwriting from his agents. Files and reports all were written down with computer and apart from a signature, there wasn't much of anything handwritten any more.

However he didn't even get the chance to come around the table and look into the file with her, as she yelled at him her facial expression lightening up.

"He found them!"

He was startled by her sudden outburst of emotion after they had spent the few minutes with joking and her silencing and reading. He hadn't really expected such a positive outcome so soon, but obviously he had been wrong. They had found an information that would help them. Some evidence that would at least for the slightest bit bring any justice to what had happened to Danny, not letting his suffering be pointless. Obviously Beth had found such evidence.

She held up a piece of paper, handwritten by Danny and the small smile on her face showed the triumph about the result of her search. From his position at the table, Jack couldn't tell what Danny had written down, but it looked most definitely like an address.

"I was joking when I told him it would be nice if he would come back with these men's addresses as a result of his research. Obviously he took it pretty damn serious."

She seemed completely entangled in the moment and the information Danny had provided her with. But after three years of research that was to understand rather easily. In all this time she had never been that close, although this triumph had cost a lot... Jack asked himself since when Danny knew about the guys' residences and why he hadn't told Elizabeth about it.

He realised that he had most probably not been able to reach her during working hours on that Friday noon. His kidnapping and torment was even more cruel, when taking into consideration that he most definitely had been on his way to tell Beth about his discovery...

"We can arrest them – sorry – I meant you can do that, can't you?"

He looked at her thoughtfully for a few moments, taking another look at the note then. The expression on his face became determined, almost grim when he answered to her.

"Yes, we can and we will."


	15. Chapter 15

A.N.: Believe it or not – but I'm still alive! I just realized its been for month (!) since my last update. I really didn't think it's been that long...

But after finally getting a new PC, a new laptop, a new Internet provider and a different text editor which forced me to convert all my files I finally managed to make a reappearance!

So I hope there's someone still out there remembering this story and willing to read (smiles nervously). Reviews would be very much appreciated.

Enjoy!

Chapter 15:

It was deep into the night as Samantha woke from an unpleasant, restless sleep in that hospital bed in an empty store room at ICU, normally just used by the doctor in charge if he had to work by night and there was nothing of importance to do.

She had welcomed that chance to sleep a little, to get a rest and lose the thoughts about her fallen and severly injured co-worker for a while, but she had been uneasy. The smell of the hospital invaded her nose and her thoughts of Danny hadn't vanished, but had pursuated her in her dream. Although she wouldn't remember anything about it anymore, she knew it had been some kind of nightmare.

That was probably why she had woken up... Actually she didn't care about the reason for her waking. Right now she just felt the deep and urgent longing for some coffee and afterwards she would get back to her co-worker's room, reassigning to her night-watch.

She got out of the bed and slipped back into her shoes, carefully opening the door to the corridor. It was absolutely silent out there and except for the emergency signs there was no light down the hall. It seemed to be a calm night at ICU, which actually was a good sign. It meant that none of the patients were in danger – that Danny wasn't in danger.

She went down the corridor to the nurse's office to ask for a sip of coffee and then get back to her chair at Danny's room. But before she even got there she heard a sound that made her blood freeze in her veins. It came from one of the monitors at the nurses office – a monitor checking the ICU patient's vitals. It was a shrill beep which she heard and she knew what it meant.

It was the sound of alarm, of emergency – one of the patients had just flatlined and she knew this meant he was in mortal danger. She didn't even want to think about it, didn't even want to imagine. She could see the nurse in charge pick up the phone and call the doctor's office to inform them about the incident and get some help as soon as possible.

She wished not to listen to the nurse's fast and slightly hysterical, but at least alarmed words as she told the doctor what was going on – she didn't want to know, she didn't want to have certainty, but she just couldn't keep herself from listening.

"Dr. Collins – this is ICU. I got a patient flatlining up here – I need you to approach immediately... Yes. I already send two of the nurses, they are performing CPR right now...It's room eight, Dr. Alright, see you in a minute!"

Sam wasn't able to step out of the way as the nurse in charge came out of the office now and hurried down the corridor. Room eight – she knew what this meant. It meant her nightmare - she couldn't remember anymore, but knew she had - was coming true right now. This was Danny's room.

She didn't even know how long she had been standing there, ripped of all emotions and thoughts, unable to move any further. But as a figure in a white coat rushed besides her down the hall, she was pulled back to reality. Dr. Collins had just arrived!

Without even knowing how or why, Sam followed her, getting ever closer to Danny's room and hearing the muffled sounds increase to orders and strict words. She knew she wasn't allowed to go in there and she didn't even know if she wanted to look inside the room. Hearing the orders was a thing barely able to bear already.

"Get me another unit of adrenalin, quickly! We need to get his heart working, goddamn it!"

A few moments of silence followed, probably as Dr. Collins was injecting the medication. But Sam could still hear the performance of CPR and the hiss of the respirator giving air to her co-worker's lifeless body.

"Anything?"

"No, Dr. Collins – I don't have a pulse..."

"How long?"

"It's almost five minutes now..."

"Okay – get the defibrilator working, we need to shock him..."

"But you said it was too dangerous, you said he probably couldn't cope with that!"

"Are there any other options left?"

"Get me a 180 – hurry!"

Sam couldn't help it but look up, through the window and into the room right now. She didn't even know why she was doing it. She was doing everything without thinking for the last couple of minutes. This wasn't about curiosity to see what was going to happen, or fear and the urgent wish to know if Danny would be alright. She just did it.

"Clear!"

She just looked as the medical staff, except for Dr. Collins, who held the defibrilator's paddles in hands stepped away from the bed. She could see Dr. Collins lower the paddles to Danny's bare chest. Sam was able to see the bandages, the stitched cut wounds, the healing and scarbuilding flesh of minor injuries and the blue and purple bruises all over his chest and abdomen. The sight was already making her feel extremly troubled, but the picture of Danny's lifeless form convulsing on that goddamn hospital bed, while Dr. Collins was putting the paddles down, made her feel nauseous.

She just wished for this to stop. Logic told her that this wasn't alright, that Dr. Collins was hurting Danny. But she although knew that she wasn't at all thinking rational and that she had no idea what was the right thing to do. She just knew that this current piercing beeping tone needed to disappear.

"Still no pulse!"

"Alright get me another unit of adrenaline and the paddles to 200."

"Doc!"

"Just do it! We don't have any choice. I won't lose him, you hear me – I won't! Hurry!"

Sam had to see the same image, appearing just a few seconds ago for another time. Right now she wished to rather run in there and stop the doctor or to loudly scream. But no words emerged from her lips and she wasn't able to move a single inch. She just kept on staring inside.

"Still nothing!"

"Try again..."

Something changed, something about the surrounding was different right now and Sam needed some seconds to detect what it actually was: The noises had died down, the beeping had vanished. And then she heard that soothing, selvating words from one of the nurses.

"We got a pulse – it's weak and pretty irregular, but it's there."

Dr. Collins allowed herself a small smile and a slight feeling of temporary triumph. She hadn't won the war yet, but she had won another very hard battle. She wouldn't give up on her patient. She would push him through. She could hear herself, breathing a sigh of relief as she laid down the paddles. It had been close, extremely close.

"I want all the stitches and bandages checked. And I need a full x-ray check. We need to see if any of the injuries were screwed up again, due to the spasm. I will stay upstairs for the rest of the night. Get me a full check-up every two hours and call me as soon as there's the slightest change in his condition!"

As the doctor left the room, Sam held her back. Her voice was once again trembling as she started to talk and her eyes were watery. She had just started to realize what this whole situation meant, how close to the edge it had been.

"What just happened in there?"

"I'm not really sure. It may be a sign of infection, but for now I couldn't find any. His heartbeat had already been irregular, when he was brought in. Maybe his system couldn't take the load of the injuries and the coma anymore. Maybe it was some reaction to the medication... I don't know right now, but we're about to find out..."

"What about his condition, is it worse... Is he..."

"I don't know if he's going to survive, I still don't. The only thing I can say, is that it isn't an encouraging event. But I still have some hope for him... I already said this before – I don't even know how he made a survival up to this point and he just surprised me once again. I won't give up on him so soon."

Sam felt somehow relieved by the doctor's words. She was the one in charge, the one who needed to know. And hearing that she wasn't willing to give up, was the most soothing thing she had heard in days. It was the first glimpse of hope there ever had been since she entered this hospital. She even allowed herself a small smile about it – yet hope remained.


	16. Chapter 16

Thanks to chaser1, Zonya and babs6608 for reviewing! Here's the next chapter.

Chapter 16:

Something had changed, had decreased, had gone wrong. His shelter seemed to become a trap and a feeling had reappeared, which he hadn't been confronted with since he came here – fear. He was afraid, his surrounding was threatening him and above all he had no idea how to react to it.

The sea – still calm just minutes ago – was rough, high waves crushing to the shore. Clouds had appeared, covering the sun and outing a dim, gray, depressing light on the whole scenery. He was cold, which caused him to shiver – another sensation he hadn't been forced to cope with since he arrived at this strange place.

He no longer felt safe at this place, but – and he hadn't even cared about it so far – he had no idea how to escape this place. Something, some force unknown to him, had brought him here

and he had no control about it after all.

He frantically thought about a reason for all this happening. What had caused this? What had he done? Had he done anything after all? He just couldn't believe this was a natural process, that this was supposed to happen. He had really hoped he would be able to keep this place, but obviously somebody had decided that it was time to take it away from him.

All of a sudden the surrounding changed once again and this time he gasped in surprise... and in fear. The first time this had happened, it had occurred absolutely natural to him, but this time he felt confused and dizzy. And there was something else he was feeling, that definitely didn't belong here – pain.

He was back in the forest he had been when he first became aware of his surrounding, but he was barely able to believe it was the very same place. It was dark, cold and damp around here now and he was barely able to breathe. The trees seemed to tower above him dangerously and the branches hanging in the way seemed like claws reaching out for him. An angry wind was audible, making his feeling of being cold even worse. The pleasant sounds – and the simple silence he had enjoyed when being here for the first time had vanished.

The level of pain however had increased and combined with his inability to breathe properly, it caused him even more fear. He wanted to get away from this place, run to a sheltered surrounding, but he couldn't escape. Whatever force had put him here in first place, now wanted him to leave. But he wasn't willing to.

He tried to shut out the coldness, the pain and the fear. Tried to breathe in deeply and closed his eyes, hoping to find a way to get away from the forest again – to another warmer and friendlier place. But his situation didn't get any better. The sound of the wind seemed to rush in his ears and the branches really seemed to pull him into a certain direction now.

He quickly opened his eyes, but what he was confronted with then, was far worse than imagining the branches grabbing for him. The surrounding had slightly changed once again. He was still in the forest, but at the edge of it now, covered in spinous, dead thicket, which was cutting his legs. But the far worse thing was the sight right in front of him.

It was a cliff, a very steep cliff and the rushing wind was moving towards and over it. He could see nothing – not in the distance and not down the cliff. It was pitch black down there. With horror he realized that he had no support after all – he couldn't hold on to anything. He knew he would fall, he would fall down the cliff and then he would die. But as much as he struggled he couldn't step backwards, he couldn't get away.

He closed his eyes once again – hoping beyond any hope that it would work this time, that his imagination would carry him away from this place, save him and make him feel comfortable again. Thinking about it – it was a stupid thing to do. He knew he should better try to run, get through the thicket and back into the forest away from the cliff.

But this wasn't a normal place and the normal laws of physics and biology didn't work around here. It was a dreamworld – a shelter made out of memory and wishes and the only way he was able to think of that was probably able to save him was to dream.

But he was unfocused. Something was blocking his thoughts, making it unable for him to concentrate. He cursed silently and tried hard to keep his thoughts in line, but it wouldn't work. Somewhere in the back of his mind there was a mumbling, unpleasant sound. A sound he didn't want to listen to, but he couldn't make it go away. It was causing him pain and he didn't want that.

He didn't even bother to what it had to say – it was simply trying to get his attention and kept him from what he needed to do. It was annoying and he really would have loved to yell at it, but it was pointless. This thing was just some imagination in his mind – there was nobody there to yell at.

He reopened his eyes, but his situation hadn't improved. He still found himself standing at that damn cliff and the wind had moved him even closer to its edge. He realized he wouldn't get away. He would fall no matter what he would do, he would fall down into this pitch darkness and there was absolutely nothing he could do for his protection – just wait and see.

All of a sudden the voice seemed to get clear – just for a second – and he believed he could hear it call him, call his name. But it probably was just some form of panic. He struggled again, tried to move into a position he would be out of the wind that was pushing him forward but it wasn't working.

He didn't even realize it for the first few seconds, but he had lost the ground under his feet. It was a strange sensation, for it felt like floating for a few seconds and he already began to hope that gravity was another thing that wasn't fully working at this strange place. But in the next split second he was forced to realize he was wrong – he was falling.

He wished to scream, tried to, but no sound was coming from his mouth – something was blocking his airways making it impossible to say a single thing, not even allowing him to breathe. He tried again and again but nothing was happening, he just didn't seem to get this thing – whatever it was – out of his throat.

Actually it wasn't of much use anyway. He would be dead in a few seconds, his body would collide with the ground that seemed miles and miles down from the cliff and he would be dead in an instant. Actually he should be hoping to fall unconscious from lack of oxygen before it happened. It would be less painful then.

Once again he believed the voice was calling out for him, saying something else he couldn't understand, but of course he was wrong. His mind was playing a few last soothing tricks on him to make the impact easier for him. He tried to scream for one last time – his lungs feeling like they were on fire from the pointless effort he had put them through.

And then darkness engulfed him.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

„Where do we find them?"

Elizabeth showed the piece of paper to Jack, containing the address she had just spoken of.

Surprisingly she was smiling at him – a sad small smile and he didn't really get what this was about. He took the paper from her hands giving her a slightly concerned gaze. But his question was answered before he even got a chance to anounce it, as she tapped to the paper now.

„He asked me to be careful...That's what he wrote down underneath these addresses. He was worried about my safety."

He gave her a sympathetic smile and gently squeezed her shoulder. It was just so goddamn unfair and that made it even harder to cope with the current situation, especially for her. This note just once again showed to them, that Danny had never expected anything like this happening to him, he hadn't seen any danger. But he had been very wrong.

„I'm okay, I'm fine – it's just so heartbreakingly unfair. This was not supposed to happen, he was not supposed to get involved in this – not like that."

„I know."

And knowing it he did – Danny had not been supposed to be in any way endangered by Elizabeth's investigation, but that hadn't prevented it from happening. Both of them hadn't been aware of what kind of a strong opponent they were up against. The results were plain for everyone to see...

He looked at Elizabeth once again and her facial expression showed an extent of grim determination, which clearly told him what she would be asking him next.

„I want to join you."

„No."

She was angry, her facial expression showed it, but she didn't seem very much surprised. However he knew she wouldn't give up that easily. She had proven to be to much of a stubborn character to simply give in to his decision like that. He would have to convince her.

„Why not?"

„You're a civilian, Beth – I can't allow you to join an arrest by a federal agency."

„This is my case!"

„I know that – and it's **my** agent lying in a hospital bed fighting for that bit of life they have left him with. We both do have a reason to get after them, but neither of us can decide about this by emotion. You cannot join us Elizabeth, it's too dangerous. For you and for the outcome of this investigation. This has to be played by the book. I don't want to offer them any chance to escape just because we broke protocol."

She relaxed visibly, his words making sense to her and she seemed willing to obey to his decision. But as he had expected she wanted something in return for staying here during the arrest.

„Okay, but I want to join the interrogation."

„As you are the one holding all the evidence in hands – that's okay with me."

Jack and Martin had headed over to the address, Elizabeth had received from Danny with a couple of other agents. They needed to be careful on this one. If the Chileans would encounter any sign of their presence, this arrest would – most definitely – go very wrong. They couldn't and wouldn't risk that.

They had also informed NYPD who had taken over surveillance on the two Chilean men. They already were there when the two federal agents arrived at the address given to them. Martin headed over to one of the officers from NYPD, asking him about the two Chileans and then heading back to his superior.

„Are they up there?"

„Yeah, both of them and they have no idea we're here. Are sitting there like nothing ever happened. Goddamn it!"

Emotions were swirling high during the preperations of the arrest, especially as they were almost face to face with the assailants, the ones that had caused Danny so much pain for the last few days. It was just natural, Jack didn't feel any different about it, but he knew he couldn't let their emotions control their actions.

He gave the younger agent a reassuring look, hoping for Martin to calm down. They needed to keep their cool during this take down. Any failure could bring the whole case down, especially with an opponent that powerful as they were confronted with. If they weren't careful – the next best lawyer would bring the whole investigation down.

„It's okay, Martin. They're going to be taken down, we're going to get them."

Martin nodded to him without saying a word, looking up to the dwellings' windows where the two Chilean males were living their every day life without seeing any danger coming to them. It almost seemed a little to easy, but Jack didn't bother about that. They finally deserved some luck.

Everything had been set up for the arrest, and the only thing they were still waiting for was the final decision being made. And this decision had to be made by Jack.

„Alright. We go in."


	18. Chapter 18

A.N.: Well, it's been quiet a while since I updated this and my apologies go out to all of you who have been waiting for the story to continue – I'm really sorry. I stopped watching the show a while ago and therefore lost touch with my story. But now I finally managed to get back to it and hopefully will be able to maintain my focus... Have fun reading it and tell me what you think.

Chapter 18:

Something was wrong, deeply wrong. He wasn't sure about what it was, but something was definitely wrong or at least different. The situation had somehow changed – for the better or for the worse he could not tell, he couldn't even tell exactly what it was, that disturbed him.

He started out with trying to recall what felt still the same. He was still in pain and still unable to move and he still felt the shame, helplessness and fear. Nothing about that had changed – the worst things were still there. But he didn't feel cold anymore...

He didn't know why, but it seemed like they had given his clothes back to him. Maybe they wanted to allow him a last bit of dignity. Although he actually doubted it – they didn't care about dignity, especially not about his.

Dignity... – no – he wouldn't think about this right now. He wouldn't think about what had been happening to him, what they had done to him, what he hadn't been able to defend himself from. He simply had been helpless – a grown up man, unable to make them stop... All his fault...

No! He tried to keep the thoughts away, tried to keep himself from recalling and ordered himself to focus. He was still dealing with the task of finding out what had changed, what differed from the last time he had been conscious and awake. There had been something else.

It was because his eyes were closed, that's why he didn't realize at first. It was bright in here, there were ligths – if artificial or natural he couldn't tell. But he was no longer a captive in the dark. He didn't get this - why would they want him to see. What were they up to now? They probably were about to kill him right now. Seeing them wouldn't matter in that case.

He knew he shouldn't be opening his eyes, it was the most dumb move he could be falling for right now, but he couldn't actually help it. Although his mind tried to scream some logic into him, telling him to pretend being unconscious – he couldn't. It was like an automatical reaction, like something deep inside told him to do it. And he did.

It had been a mistake. The bright light in his eyes hurt deeply and left him almost blind. If he would've had the power he would've rosen a shielding hand to protect his eyes, but he couldn't get his arm moving. He was just able to give a short hiss of pain as the light flooded into his eyes and then he tried to lay still again, hoping they hadn't heard him.

But he hadn't been lucky, for he wasn't alone. There were sounds, muffled and distant, but as he listened closely he could hear them more clearly and the sounds formed into a voice, a voice pronouncing words or a single word to be exact. But he couldn't understand - it was still too faint. But then all of a sudden he could hear it clear and strong.

"Danny?"

He was confused, deeply confused for a few moments. He knew this voice from somewhere. It was none of his attackers, they didn't know his name, nor would they have called him by it this way if they would've known. Not with such a tone – not with worry in their voices. It was somebody else, somebody he knew. But he just didn't remember, he tried and tried, but there was no face, no name appearing, that matched with the voice.

"Danny, can you hear me? Don't you worry. Everything's okay – it's gonna be fine. No one will harm you, you're safe."

Samantha! This was the name matching with the voice. Now that she had been talking again, his mind seemed to have somehow enlightened and found some pieces of his memory, something apart from the thoughts of fear and guilt and pain. He knew she wouldn't hurt him, he knew she would take care of him. She hadn't been lying – for now he was safe.

But maybe it was just a dream, just an illusion his mind had come up with to make the pain more bearable, something that allowed him to cope with the situation he was in right now. Something from a better time, a time where he hadn't been helpless and ashamed of himself. He just needed to hear her voice one more time, needed her to soothe him, needed to bathe in that feeling of security once again.

He was barely able to announce a word after all and it took a lot of his strength to do so. He barely could hear anything emerging from his throat – it wasn't even a word, not even a real sound... More like a raspy groan emerging from his dry lips and his hurting throat. He just hoped he had been able to reach her...

"I'm here Danny – don't be afraid. Everything's gonna be okay, you're gonna recover. You don't need to worry any more. There's nobody harming you any more, you're no longer held captive. You're safe here and we're going to take care of you. Don't worry, everything's fine."

He relaxed, hearing her voice once again – that soothing illusion around him. He was grateful for that. He wouldn't have been able to endure anything more if his mind hadn't come up with this by now. This was just wonderful – he was barely able to hide back tears. But he wouldn't let these bastards see him cry, he wouldn't let them see that he already needed this imagery to still get along with his situation – he wouldn't let them see they had broken his will, had broken him.

But then something else happened, something he couldn't believe, something that couldn't be a dream. It was just impossible, this was still his illusion. No illusion – no matter how desperate the situation was – could be that strong. He felt somebody touching his hand... Somebody who touched it softly, which definitely meant it was none of his attackers.

Did this mean it was actually Sam, who was by his side? Did she really talk to him? Did she really touch him? Could this be? Could she be there? Had they found him and saved him from his martyr? He just couldn't believe it, he couldn't believe he had been saved. He needed to see it, needed to see it with his own eyes, needed to know she was actually there, no matter how painful it was. He had become a master in enduring pain in the last couple of days.

He blinked his eyes open once again and he immediately could feel the pain for another time. But this time he tried to keep back any audible sound of him feeling this pain and focused on the figure in front of him. He couldn't get a clear vision of what he was seeing at the first – the light was just too bright. But as he twinkled several times – actually each time a pretty hard effort and always a fight against just keeping them close again, his vision got more clear.

He couldn't believe what he was seeing. This couldn't be, it just couldn't – it was simply impossible. For he was actually seeing Samantha – his co-worker sitting right in front of him, giving him a concerned smile. Well – he believed he was seeing her, for she couldn't actually be there... She didn't fit into place. But he couldn't give up on her. She was a glimpse of hope. This time he tried to choke out a sound, which almost sounded like her name, but it wouldn't work.

The touch on his hand got tighter as he tried to speak the word, but he still wasn't able to figure out what it meant. He knew it couldn't be a dream for it was too intense and he knew it wasn't reality either for it was just too beautiful to be true. But what was it instead... Maybe he was dead...

Sudden panic rose in him as the thought invaded his mind and he tried to back away from the figure in front of him. Was this the solution to this riddle? The bright light, a familiar trustful person in front of him... it all fit his thoughts. But why was he still in pain then – that didn't make any sense...

"Danny please take it easy – it's all good. There's no more need to worry, no need to be afraid any more. You are safe now. The doctors are taking good care of you..."

Doctors? Medical supplies? That was it! Now he could even smell it all of a sudden – that characteristic smell, one would only find in one place of the world... He was in a hospital, somehow they had managed to find him and had taken him into the caring hands of nurses and doctors in a hospital. He somehow had survived his attackers' unbearable treatment...

Sudden awareness, and the wish to breathe in deeply from relief, made him realize that something was wrong. He wasn't able to get in air, something was blocking his airways, there was something in his throat preventing him from breathing. Panic started to rise and he clenched his fingers tightly around the hand offered, trying to grab this thing in his mouth with the other one.

But he was gently held back by Samantha and the fact that she didn't even need force to pull his hand away again, told him that he was most definitely in a very bad shape. However that didn't minimize his panic. He tried to shift in his bed, finding another way to get rid of this thing shoved down his throat, but it simply caused pain – nothing else. Samantha however was firmly grabbing him by his shoulders, trying to calm him.

"Danny, calm down and don't fight against it! You have a tube down your throat providing you with oxygen. It's alright, don't fight! The doctor is gonna remove it as soon as possible. You weren't breathing on your own for the last couple of days. It will be okay, don't worry about it, it's gonna be removed. Just try to relax."

He tried to listen to her and obey to her orders, but it wasn't easy. He still felt like he was suffocating and being forced to do something and unable to help oneself had provided him with a lot of fear and panic in the last couple of days. Suddenly her words came back on him – she knew about his condition, knew he hadn't been breathing...

But what did that mean? Did that mean she also knew about the other stuff? Did that mean they all knew? Of course the doctors did, they were responsible for his treatment. But what about Samantha or Jack – did they know? Did they know every last sickening detail of what had been happening to him? Did they know what they had done? What he hadn't been able to fight? He felt overwhelmingly ashamed all of a sudden and backed away from her once again.

This was cruel, it was even more cruel than the treatment he had gone through – for it had simply been a physical pain. This now was far worse than any torment they had put him through. They had broken him, had expelled all his shame and helplessness to the people that trusted in him. He knew he couldn't cope with that – never would he be able to cope with that.

Right now he wished he had died, wished it had all ended. The pain, the fear, the shame – he wished for all of that to end. He stopped fighting against the will to close his eyes and all power and will left his body as he lay limp on the bed, welcoming the unconsciousness that overtook him once again, sending him into a darkness without thoughts and without knowledge.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

Samantha left Danny's hospital room in search for a doctor to tell him that he had woken up. But strangely she didn't feel happy about it. Something about his reaction – his complete inability to do anything on his own, being barely able to open his eyes, and his unawareness of his surrounding made her feel sad. It would take a long time for him to recover, if he ever would after all...

What troubled her even more was his reaction to her telling him about the doctors and his inability to breathe. She had somehow agitated him for he had tried to shift in bed, had tried to move away from her, escape her, although it definitely had been painful for him to do so. Sam had no idea what had caused this reaction and she feared it. She feared Danny would stay that way – afraid and sensitive to the slightest sign of discomfort.

She feared she had lost the man that she had been working with just days ago. His outer appearance due to the severe injuries – his lifeless, helpless form in that hospital bed – had already provided her with a change she had never wanted to see. But his reactions told her, that not only had his body, but also his psyche suffered. He wasn't the same self-conscious, enthusiastic character with his cocky behavior...

But maybe she was simply reading to much into things – he had been injured severly, had been tortured for heaven's sake and now she was worrying about his reactions. Of course his mental state wasn't alright and mixed with the pain medication and the unawareness caused by the coma, his behavior was completely understandable.

She didn't even realize Jack standing in front of her until she literally ran into him. He had most probably been on his way to Danny's hospital room, but as lost in thought as she was, she hadn't detected him. She winced as he addressed her, ripping her out of her thoughts and speculations.

„Are you alright?"

„What?"

„Samantha – are you okay?"

„Yes, uhm – I was on my way to the doctor's office. Danny just woke up a few moments ago."

She didn't know why, but she had expected him to be cheerful about that news. But his reaction didn't differ much from hers, actually he didn't seem too attached by it after all. She believed there was even some sort of sad expression appearing on his face, and although it confirmed her suspicions, she didn't like him reacting in that way.

„How is he?"

„He lost consciousness again after a few minutes, but he was barely aware of his surrounding anyway."

They were silent for a few moments and Samantha frantically thought of the right words to tell Jack what she had experienced also, in which way Danny had reacted. She still didn't know if she should bring it up anyway, but something about Jack's former reaction told her, that he wouldn't be all too surprised about what had just happened.

„Jack – there's somenthing else..."

„What is it?"

„When I told him about the doctors and that I knew about his condition he tried to move away from me, just like he was afraid or something."

She looked at him intensively, hoping for some sign of alarm on his face, something that would tell her he had already been aware that this would happen. She didn't know why, but she simply had that nagging feeling that he hadn't been completely honest with them, that he was hiding something from them, soemthing about Danny's condition.

„That's perfectly normal, Samantha – after the ordeal he has been put through, I wouldn't have expected any other reaction."

Something about the tone of his voice, left her with an uncomfortable feeling. He was surpressing an emotion and she wasn't able to detect what it was. But she wasn't sure if she wanted to find out. It was just that she couldn't keep herself from being curious.

„Jack, what are you hiding from me?"

She had expected him to feel attacked, to tell her that she was wrong and that there was nothing he wasn't telling her. She had been prepared from him to get angry and stop speculating, but none of it happened. He simply just looked at her in a very sad way for some moments without saying a single word.

„I can't tell you, I have no right to. It's not my decision to inform you about all the details of Danny's injuries, it's his and if he won't tell you - it's perfectly okay. I myself would be happier not to know about it. Just don't push it, Sam."

His answer had left her deeply concerned. Something horrible must have happened during these three days of torment Danny had been forced to go through, something even more cruel and painful than broken bones, cuts and bruises. She didn't even want to think about it for any longer, but still Jack's answer hadn't made her curiousity die down. However she was pretty sure that knowing about whatever had caused Danny's reaction would make it a lot more difficult for her to cope with his current state. Maybe she was lucky not to know.

„I'm gonna join you."

Once again, Jack had managed to rip her out of her thoughts. And she needed another few seconds to refocus on her superior agent and the surrounding around her. She had almost forgotten where she had been headed to.

„Where to?"

Jack smiled at her – a sympathetic, friendly smile, exactly the right thing to soothe her preoccupied mind right now.

„To the doctor's office, remember? You wanted to inform the doctor about Danny's condition."

„Yeah sure."

They walked down the corridor together, heading to Dr. Collins' office without saying another word. Anyway there wasn't much to say about this situation after all. So far they didn't know if their fallen co-worker would be okay. His waking had been a very good sign, but yet there was still a long and hard road in front of him – the road of recovery.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

They had entered the building silently, not giving the two Chileans any chance to realize they were present. They had taken the whole investigation this far, they wouldn't risk to jeopardize it on the last minutes before they would succeed. This needed to go down perfectly and so far they had done anything to achieve it.

As soon as they were up the stairs and in front of the door to the dwelling of Francesco de Vierra – the place, where both men were at right now – the primary attempt of being quite vanished. It was a moment of organized chaos, a moment of adrenaline rush as they entered the dwelling, broke into it.

The two men were hit by the invasion to their private rooms completely unaware. They really hadn't been expecting this, feeling completely safe in their little haven. Jack even suspected they had been having a lot of fun about the fact that the federal agency of this country would not be able to track them down, although they had almost killed a federal agent.

Well – they had been wrong about that.

The reaction of the two men was differing from each other like night was from day. Francesco de Vierra tried to escape immediately, getting up from the couch he had been sitting on and trying to get next door, out of range of the agents swarming into his place.

He never sustained a chance. He was held back, taken down and put in handcuffs before he even had the chance to take more than two steps away from the couch. He cursed at his attackers in Spanish and he didn't seem to run out of words to do so. He was in rage and he was most probably also afraid. This attack to his privacy had cost him a lot of his self-assurance. He had been found and he had never believed this would happen.

„Francesco – calmate!"

Cristobal Adamén gave the exact order to his partner, who silenced himself immediately. His reaction went alongside with what he had done as soon as the federal agents entered the room. He had simply stayed seated, not doing anything against the assault to his privacy in any way. The only thing he had done, was putting the book down he had been reading.

He was quiet, paying close attention to what was going on around him and he didn't seem very worried about this whole situation after all. For Jack's liking he was much to calm. He obviously had been better prepared for an event like that than his partner. Or he simply had better nerves... From what Elizabeth had told him, that was most probable.

Jack however didn't waste any time to think about Cristobal Adamén's reaction. He hadn't come here to profile this guy, he was here to arrest him and that was exactly what he would be doing. He knew he was supposed to stay neutral on this one, but he couldn't keep a tone of triumph from his voice when he spoke up to the two men.

„Cristobal Adamén, Francesco de Vierra – you are under arrest."

„What for – what have we done, what do you arrest us for?"

„For the murder on 228 people in an imprisonment camp during the dictatorship in your homecountry."

Jack had thought about adding the assault on Danny, but he knew he couldn't do this. There was no proof whatsoever for such a suggestion and he wouldn't do it – although he deeply wished to blame the ones responsible for the crime they had commited.

Adamén was looking at him in disbelief like he had never heard about this camp or even the dictatorship ever before. He wore a confused smile on his face and stayed seated in the chair they had found him in, the book still held in his hands. He seemed not willing to get up from his comfortable position.

„Come on now."

But he wasn't allowed to stay there any longer. Martin – already deeply enraged about the elder Chilean's first reaction – was forcefully grabbing the older man by his arm, which caused him to wince in discomfort. He tried to pull away from the younger agent, but Martin wouldn't let go.

„There's no need to be rude."

This was exactly what Jack had feared about this situation – he wouldn't give them any chance to force a situation where they could claim they had been harrassed or treated badly during the arrest. Martin was just on the edge of giving them a reason.

He stepped beside the other agent, gently holding him by the arm and silently advising him to let go of the other man. Martin hesitated for some more seconds before he looked at Jack and nodded slightly. He finally released the other man from his grib, taking a step backwards and giving Jack a chance to deal with the Chilean.

„I would highly advice you to cooperate. **Then** there will be no need to be rude."

Adamén didn't seem frightened by his words. As he was still wearing a smile on his face, it seemed more like he was actually amused about this whole situation. Jack could feel his temper rise because of that fact and was immediately reminded of what Elizabeth had told him about this man – that he was able to get to the core of everyone's emotion simply with words. Well, Adamén hadn't even needed words to achieve that on both him and Martin.

He was slowly getting up from the chair he had been sitting in, holding his hands out to Martin who had just tried to force him to move from that chair. He obviously waited for the younger agent to handcuff him – or better said waited for him to harrass him again. But Martin didn't seem willing to play alongside, he didn't give in to what Adamén tried.

„We are both taking the right of having a lawyer. After your little, melodramatic performance that seems deeply necessary to me."

He was trying it again and this time he was actually using words to do so. He was insulting them – although in a subtile way without ever getting inpolite or loud. He wanted them to show emotion and was willing to risk to get hurt just to make them do a mistake. His attempts however were pretty fruitless. Jack simply answered his question, although he couldn't keep a slightly threatening tone from it.

„You definitely should do that."


	21. Chapter 21

A.N.: Thank you for all your kind reviews - I really appreciate that there are people still reading the story after such along wait. So here you go with two more chapters :

Chapter 21:

When he woke up again, he was barely able to remember anything. He knew that he had been awake before and that something had been different then, but he just couldn't recall what it was. It felt like all his memory had been wiped away – well at least the good part of it. He was sure whatever he couldn't recall any more had been something positive, for that was the one thing he wouldn't be allowed to have. They had taken it away from him.

He didn't dare to open his eyes and actually it wouldn't make much of any difference – around him the darkness was as engulfing as inside of him. He wouldn't be able to see anything. At least not the reality, but maybe his mind would come up with some more horrible images which he believed to see in that darkness...

Darkness – the word seemed to fill his head and he asked himself why he was thinking about it, why he bothered.

He tried to shift in bed, waiting for the inevitable pain in his arms from the effort of moving, but it wouldn't come. He didn't even feel relieved, but was deeply surprised, almost shocked about this new experience. He was no longer tied to the bed, his arms were free. But with his legs broken, tying him to the bed didn't make much of any sense, anyway.

His legs – something was wrong with them as well and not just that. Something about his whole body's reaction seemed wrong... Had he been able to, he would have laughed about the realization – a hard, desperate and slightly hysterical laughter. It didn't hurt any more. He wasn't in pain, at least not that enormous amount of seering, blinding, agonizing pain he had been in before. The sensation had subsided to a dull throbbing.

All of a sudden some words came back to his minds – and a voice, a voice he knew, a female voice – someone who would not hurt him. It hadn't been one of his attackers, it had been someone else, but his mind wouldn't provide him with the information – no matter how hard he tried. But the words came back on him – the words she had spoken in that calm soothing voice.

„The doctors are taking good care of you..."

Then it happened – all of a sudden and without any sign of warning. His memory came back on him, throwing all that information at him he had just been searching for so desperately. He remembered the name of the woman now – it had been Samantha, Sam – his co-worker and she had been deeply worried about him.

He also remembered that something had been deeply wrong when he had first woken up, something that had caused Samantha to calm him down. But whatever they had injected him with that kept the pain at bay, also didn't allow him to detect what had been wrong with him, what had agitated him that much when he had first woken up.

No wonder she felt like that. He had no idea what he looked like, but it didn't take much of any imagination to do so. Her words proved it – he remembered fragments of it: doctors, hospital, taken care of... He had no idea what time it was or since when he was here – how long he had been...

And with that very thought all the other memories were coming back at full force. They had been there for the whole time, but his confusion about what was going on, his memory of something happy after all and probably the medication, too, had kept them at bay. But now he could no longer escape these memories. They had once again returned to haunt him.

He could feel his hands starting to tremble and he knew his heartbeat was quickening as memory rushed over him. He remembered his attackers – the ones hurting him, the one talking to him and the other one... He felt sick all of a sudden, memorizing what this last individual had done to him, what he had forced him to go through.

He could still hear his insulting laughter about his desperate pleas for help, he could still smell the sweat of the other individual's body and the most sickening thing was the fact that it seemed to him like he could still feel him – like he was still around, still haunting him, looking for him, willing to hurt him again and again.

He wished to scream, scream for someone to help him – for anyone after all, but it wouldn't work. Something was deeply wrong with his throat, something kept him from getting help, kept him from escaping that newly arranged nightmare – only for him. He knew he couldn't move, he couldn't go anywhere, he couldn't keep them from doing it again.

Why had they done it? What had he done to deserve that? What had he done wrong? He couldn't even remember. He knew they had some sick reason for doing it, that they had been able to justify it, but he just couldn't remember. It didn't matter anyway. It had happened, the reason for it was no longer important – they had done this to him.

He wished to protect his body from yet another insult, yet another injury as horrible as this one, but he didn't manage. Something was wrong with his legs, he couldn't move them up to his stomach to curl into a less exposed position. He needed some more seconds to remember that they were broken, had been broken intentionally and the memory of the pain he had felt when they had done this to him came back, mixing with that other unsayable, unthinkable one that was haunting him, swirling through his mind.

He could feel the hotness of tears rising in his eyes and he knew he had cried before – had laid there in bed – helpless ashamed and exposed and had cried about his misery. He couldn't escape the thoughts, he couldn't rationalize them, he couldn't make them go away. They were real – all of this wasn't just some nightmare, it had really happened, it had happened to him.

He felt his stomach rebelling as a physical reaction to the memories, the sickening feeling they left behind and he felt the urgent wish to throw up. It triggered yet another image – another emotion, another awful picture of his torment. He remembered when he had last felt that urgent wish to vomit, immediately being followed by the wish to pass out. It had been seconds before, before...

He couldn't hold the tears back any longer, he simply didn't know how. He hadn't known how the last time. He felt like he was back in that dark abandoned room with nothing else but his thoughts and the certainty that his assailants would come back to hurt him – again and again until he would give in or they would finally kill him. He couldn't escape...

The nurse in charge of nightshift at ICU had been reading a rather boring novel when she had been alarmed by one of her patient's heartbeats quickening. It didn't take her much of any thought to react to it. It was the every day - or in her case every night - routine and she had years of experience. She had a last checking look on the patient's vitals, seeing if he had calmed on his own, before she picked up the phone and called the doctor in charge.

„Dr. Collins – this is ICU. I have a problem with one of your patients. His heartbeat is rather rapid and he doesn't seem to calm down on his own. Do you want me to have him sedated?"

„Let me guess – Daniel Taylor?"

„Yes, Ma'am."

„Just check his vitals and wait for me, I'm gonna be there in a minute."

The doctor hung up on her and was left pretty surprised by the doctor's reaction. She could have taken care of this on her own, it was no big deal, nothing one of the doctors actually had to care about. But the simple fact that she hadn't even needed to tell Dr. Collins whose condition she was troubled about, made the reaction more easier to understand.

When she showed up at the nurse's office some minutes later, her patient still hadn't calmed down, which was exactly what the nurse told her. She was still surprised by the doctor's reaction and she even believed to see a slight sign of desperation on the doctor's face as she asked her for a sedative.

„You need me down there?"

„No, it's okay, I'm gonna take care of it. Thanks for calling me."

„No problem, Dr. Collins."

The nurse couldn't help it, but watched the doctor as she walked down the corridor, the sedative and a syringe with her. She was still surprised by the doctor showing up here in person and that quick on top of it. Anyways – it was none of her concern. She sat back down next to the monitors and picked up her book again.

He knew he wasn't alone any more – he had no idea how, but he could feel the presence of another person in the room he was trapped in. They had come back! They would hurt him again! He desperately tried to scream one more time, but there was no sound coming from his mouth. It simply just hurt and he wasn't left with anything else to do, but to wait in horror for what was going to happen next.

At first there happened nothing – like the person next to his bed seemed to think about what to do next and then someone touched him by his arm. He winced and tried to move away from the grip that was now tightening around his arms, but he had no strength – he didn't have the slightest chance to escape.

He could actually hear the blood rushing in his ears and the quick hammering sound of his heart beating. He wasn't able to calm down – not like this, not with someone he didn't know who he was and what he would do next to him, holding him down. All of a sudden he felt a pinch to his arm and he immediately detected the feeling as an injection.

They had injected him with something and he didn't even have the slightest idea what it could be. Maybe they were trying to poison him? The person next to him, still had the hand on his arm and then he was able to detect some soft words, the words of a female.

„It's okay – there's no need to worry. You're in hospital, you're gonna be okay. Don't worry. Try to calm down."

Hospital. The word seemed to trigger the other parts of his memory to come back to him, managing at least slightly to surpress the horror he just had been faced with. He remembered – he was no longer in their wrath, he had been safed, he was taken care of... he had no more chance to think about it any further for all memory seemed to vanish from him right then, leaving nothing but else behind but darkness.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22:

„Señora Tejar – what a pleasure to finally meet you."

Beth didn't make a single sound and there was no sign of any reaction, any emotion on her face. But it didn't take much of any imagination to understand what she was feeling. However she wouldn't give in – she wouldn't show any feelings to these murderers she was facing right now.

The man was arrogant, though he was as polite as Beth had described him, at the very same time. But still – addressing her openly like this, which clearly told them not only had he known about her investigation, but had been hiding from her. His polite greeting let them know that he didn't seem to feel like he had done anything wrong, although Elizabeth had come up with tons of evidence which proved him wrong.

„I assume you knew about Miss Tejar's assignment to find you and bring you back to your homecountry?"

Jack started his questioning. But the Chilean seemed to feel comfortable and not like he was in danger of being accused with any crime. He was self-confident and that was his very grave mistake. He did – obviously – not know about Elizabeth's evidence, otherwise he would've reacted to her presence in another way – in a less memorizing way.

„Yes, I have been informed about it."

„You don't seem too nervous."

A smile appeared on the older man's face – a reaction which couldn't have stated any more clearly that this man didn't care about their questioning. He felt safe – believing that there was no way for them to get to him.

„Because there is nothing to worry about. With all due respect to Mrs. Tejar and meaning no offence to her – but her accuse is ridiculous. There has never been any such crime commited by any of us."

The audacity that sprung from his words was sheer overwhelming. Everyone present in this room **knew** that he was lying, but he didn't even seem to have a problem with that, he wasn't even nervous. Elizabeth however had a much harder time to stay calm. There she was, sitting opposite of the murderer she had been searching for, for the past two and a half years and he had the nerve to openly lie to her, wearing a goddamn smile on his face while she had tons of proof for his crimes

She would show him, that he very well was a criminal and very well was in danger of finally beign sentenced. She skipped through her file, searching for the copy of a certain document, the protocol of an interrogation on a young Chilean politician of the opposite party – describing rather detailed how they had tried to gather information. A document being signed by Cristobal Adamén.

She put it down on the table, pushing it to the elder Chilean and tapping to the signature on the piece of paper.

„Isn't that your signature?"

„It seems like it is."

He still was not even close to losing his composure. She had just vehemently tried to get him into a defensive position and he still was smiling at her innocently. This guy would've made a damn good poker player. And he even managed to have Elizabeth move her temper on him.

„What is this document saying?"

„This document tells about the interrogation of a young Chilean male, it tells about how he has been brutally tortured for the gathering of information, how he had to suffer for days, how he pleaded for mercy and beseeching to finally be allowed to die. That's what it says – and you signed it."

„No, I did not."

„How do you explain your signature on that piece of paper then?"

„I cannot, but I assure you, I never signed any such document."

The interview started to get out of hand – the Chilean male had managed to keep control and at the very same time had managed to agitate Beth with only a few words. They were in need to win back the upper hand on this conversation and find some evidence, some question this guy couldn't denie. Some way to get to him that would finally cause some other reaction than the calm smile on his face.

"Mr. Adamén, where have you been for the weekend?"

"I'm sorry. What's that got to do with Mrs. Tejar's previous question?"

This man knew how to handle an interrogation, he was not intimidated by the sudden change of theme, he even tried to still keep the turn of it under control. But Jack wasn't willing to let this happen, he would not have himself tricked into explaining, wasting precious time. Time, which gave Cristobal Adamén the chance to find an excuse, a lie to answer the question.

"Nothing. Would you just answer the question?"

"Of course. I have been with Mr. de Vierra."

"For the whole weekend?"

"For the whole weekend, yes."

"What did you do?"

"Pardon me?"

"It's a simple question – what have you two been doing? It's just two days ago, you might remember."

"Nothing in particular."

Elizabeth reacted without any warning and without giving Jack any chance to prevent her from doing it.

"What about torturing people to death? Hasn't that been part of your weekend activity?"

If they had been alone he would have cursed at her now. She was dedicated – that was out of question – but she had no interrogation skills after all. She had just openly accused this man of a crime they had no proof about – not even the slightest evidence – that he had actually commited it.

Of course all the people inside this room knew perfectly that Adamén and de Vierra were responsible for Danny's condition and that Adamén was lying to them, but they simply couldn't prove it. Not as long as Danny was in a state where he wouldn't be able to testify against them. Beth couldn't just come up with an accuse like that, not for now.

"How dare you even ask me such a question! This isn't ridiculous any more, it's insane. You are insane, Mrs. Tejar! I am a respectable man, a man of honor – I don't walk around killing people. I never in my life killed anyone. I never in my life hurt anyone. I never even lay a hand on anyone. I have no idea what you are talking about, I haven't done anything wrong. You have no right to accuse me like that, no right after all."

Unfortunatelly he was right – with both his statements. They had neither a right to accuse him, nor had he ever killed or hurt anyone – not physically. He had always been the power behind these torments and killings, but he never had gotten his own hands dirty, he was too smart for that. He hadn't even been lying with his words.

Elizabeth had taken this one step too far and now there was no longer a basis for a futile questioning. But still there was a glimpse of light in the darkness. Elizabeth had the evidence, it was indenieable and there would be a trial. The Chileans would be held accounted for and brought to justice for what had happened twenty years ago.

Just that there was no way of punishing them for the crime they had commited that very weekend, the crime which had left Danny in a hospital, fighting for his life right now – in a desperate fight as Dr. Collins had clearly put it. It was frustrating, but for the moment they had no other chance but to wait for a change of situation, a change to the better – when they would actually have some proof. A situation in which Danny would have survived his injuries – willing and able to testify.

„I'm sorry, Mr. Adamén, would you excuse us for a minute?"

„Of course."

Elizabeth seemed deeply unwilling to leave the room, leave the two assailants to themselves, but she knew this wasn't her turf and she had to play by the rules and that rules meant for her to do what she was told. She also knew she had messed this up, she had lost her temper and had not been able to control her emotions.

She knew this whole situation – Jack's reaction – was about her attack on Adamén. She was willing to defend herself for the way she had reacted, for she hadn't been wrong. She had been emotional, but she perfectly knew the man was responsible... The two of them left the investigation room and she was immediately confronted with what she had said just minutes ago.

„If you were one of my agents we would be having a very serious problem right now! What the hell were you thinking you were doing right there? Why did you ask him that?"

„I'm not going to apologize."

„You messed this up, Elizabeth. He won't tell us anything and apart from that – due to your emotional outburst – he is also informed about what we know. That was wrong."

„It was right!"

„It was stupid – that's all it was. You have absolutely no proof for what you just accused him with. I know you were right, we both know and he knows, too. But we can't ban this on him as long as we have no proof - and we don't."

Fighting with her wouldn't help it – they were both too fixed on their points of view to find a common basis and handle their difficulties. He tried to calm down, searching for a less aggressive way to explain to her why he was angry with her. He hadn't meant to blame her – he simply wanted her to understand.

„You have a good heart and good intentions, Elizabeth, but that alone isn't enough. You shouldn't have attacked him like that – he's too clever to give in to something like that."

„This isn't right."

„I know this. But there will be a trial – on basis of your evidence. They can't get away this time, they will be sentenced – maybe not for this crime, but for the one's you have been investigating. There will be justice."

„I hope so, I really do."


	23. Chapter 23

A.N.: I will be gone for the weekend, so there will not be any updates before Monday – sorry guys. Meanwhile enjoy the story!

Chapter 23:

It was dark, pitch dark and he wasn't able to see a single thing – but he knew something was deeply wrong, he wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but whatever it was, it was deeply wrong. As his vision was no help for him right now, he was concentrating on his other senses...

Wherever he was, it was cold in here – not freezing cold after all, but cold enough to make him shiver, but as he realized right now, maybe that was due to the fact, that he felt like his clothes were gone. Not all of them, but except for his shorts and t-shirt, he believed he was naked. He knew he had been dressed before it had gotten dark, before he had lost his memory and before he had lost consciousness.

As he tried to move from his position right now, he felt a restrain on his forearms and as he tried harder the second time, the restrain increased to a short, sharp pain. He hissed, but tried to stay calm, for he didn't want the people who had taken him here – whoever they were – to know that he had woken up. He had the slight feeling that it actually wouldn't improve the situation.

He was unable to move his head upwards to get a look at his hands, but even if he would've managed to do so – the darkness was invading him, he wouldn't have seen anything. He stopped struggling against the hold on his arms, lay still and tried to touch the restrains keeping him down... It was cold – metal, steel – but it weren't handcuffs, it was to thin to be that, it definitely was something else... It felt like steel wire to him, which would also explain the pain he had felt a few moments ago.

But still it wasn't giving any hint, what – the hell – had happened to him. Except for a stitching, piercing headache and the pain at his wrists, he physically was okay. But he had that slight uneasy impression it wouldn't stay like this... He couldn't recall what had happened before he woke up in here and he didn't even have the slightest sense of time – he had no idea if it was night or day and how long he already was here.

He tried to recall the last event he was remembering..., it was hard to focus. He knew he had been at work and he had gotten home very late into the night. He remembered that he made his way to his apartment, taking the subway and walking the rest of the way home through the deserted, dark New Yorker night streets. But he couldn't remember that he had ever entered his goddamn apartment.

Something must've happened on his way home, Someone must have attacked him, but he didn't know how it had happened or who would have done it. He tried to recall the latest events before the big dark hole of uncertainty had engulfed him. What had he done? What had he been entangled in that might have caused a kidnapping – and how the hell was he supposed to get out of this situation?

There needed to be a reason for all this... all of a sudden panic engulfed him. He remembered the warning he had been given, the words Elizabeth Tejar had said to him. She had told him to be careful, had told him that if he would dig to deep and to obvious, he would put himself into danger, a hell lot of danger. He hadn't believed her, hadn't taken her warning all too serious and obviously he would be forced to cope with the consequences now.

He closed his eyes, breathing in deeply and slowly, and tried to keep the rising panic at bay. He couldn't afford to lose his composure to the situation right now. He listened carefully to his surrounding, but there was nothing he was able to detect – obviously he was alone, at least for the moment. But he had the slight impression it wouldn't stay this way.

He had no track of time, but he was pretty sure he had been lying here for quiet a while, when someone approached the room. His arms were feeling sore already, being trapped in that upright position and he had spent the last twenty minutes with moving his hands carefully trying to keep his circulation working and not aggravating the injuries to his wrists due to the steel wire holding his arms in position.

There was a short, soft beam of light as somebody entered the room but he didn't manage to get a good look at that person, being blinded by the light as his eyes were used to the darkness around him. The other person was directly approaching him, stopping right in front of the spot he was trapped at.

"Agent Taylor."

The man definitely was having an accent, a southamerican accent. His panicked suspicion had been most likely confirmed – this man was from South America, from Chile and therfore one of the persons Elizabeth had been searching for. One of the torturers during the Chilean dictatorship and they had taken him, kidnapped him to this abandoned place.

"Who the hell are you? What do you want from me?"

"Who we are is none of your concern and what we want - you will find out soon enough."

A sudden feeling of awareness overwhelmed him – he knew who these people were and he knew what they wanted. It were the Chileans Elizabeth had asked him to search for, had warned him about. Unfortunatelly he also knew what they were capable of, he had seen Elizabeth's evidence.

"Agent Taylor – I have only one simple question for you that I want you to answer, nothing more. What has Elizabeth Tejar found out for the organisation that has assigned her? What does she know?"

He hadn't expected them to ask him anything different and he knew he wouldn't answer this question. He wouldn't help them. Of course they had ways to force him to, but if he was able to, he would withstand them, he would not give in to them. They would hurt him – he knew that – and that made him swallow hard, swallow his fear down. He didn't want to be in pain just for one simple question that he could not answer, but it most definitely couldn't be avoided.

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"This – Agent Taylor – is a lie, we both know that."

"Do we?"

"Yes we do. I assume then that you are not going to help us willingly?"

"There's nothing I can help you with anyway. I still don't know what you are talking about."

"That's too bad."

He realised that he wasn't alone right then as two more people stepped beside the bed he had been tied to. He felt the tension on his arms lessen as one of the two men cut the wire holding him in position and hauled him to his feet. He saw an opening and tried to fight against the man setting his arms free, but he was immediately slapped right in the face very hard, causing his lip to split and blood flow from it.

He felt anger rise in him, but somewhere in the back of his mind he asked himself if it was clever to attack these men once again. He had no idea where he was or how many other people there were and fighting against them would most probably have him end up in even more pain. But he wasn't willing to give up that easily. This may be his only chance of escape, having his hands free right now, he couldn't let it slip away.

He managed to get a direct hit at one of the two men, hitting him in the lower abdome and causing him to gasp and that was the last thing he was able to do for his defense. He felt a sharp pain at the back of his head and a sudden feeling of nausea and dizziness rushing over him as the other one knocked him down. He was unaware of his surrounding for just a few moments, which gave the two of them enough time to shove him a few feet away from the bed, lifting his hands and tie them back up at some spot above him, leaving him unable to do anything else for his defense.

He gasped for air, finally being able to take another breath after the sudden attack he had been forced to cope with, before he started to struggle against the restraints once again. He knew it was pointless – these guys were professionals, they wouldn't have him run away that easily, but still he felt like he needed to try. The man who had first talked to him, reacted to his fruitless effort.

"That's of no use, Agent Taylor. You shouldn't strain yourself – you will need all the strength you have."

The man stopped for a moment, giving Danny some time to think about the threat, giving him time to actually feel frightened about it. Danny almost believed he could see the man smile friendlessly although it was pitch dark around him.

"I am going to tell you what is going to happen to you now. As you are not willing to help us, we – I am sorry to say that – will force you to..."

"Yeah, I really believe you are sorry about **that**."

He knew it wasn't very smart to interrupt the guy in his little "prepare for your torment" speech, but he wouldn't show any fear. He would not give in to his assailants' attempt of scaring him, although he most definitely knew that it would inflict even more pain then.

"I advice you **not **to interrupt me, Agent Taylor. That's highly unwise, it will just cause you more discomfort. Anyway, the two men by your side are the ones responsible for you telling us what we want to know. Unfortunatelly you left us no choice but to use brute force to do so. The man to your left – as you can't see it I will tell you – is holding a pipe in his hands. I guess you already know what he is going to do with it."

Danny swallowed hard, not answering to the obviously rhetorical question. He knew his opponent would most probably inflict severe damage – at least breaking him a rip or two, if not even worse. He knew they would not kill him, they couldn't afford to do so, but he knew he would have to suffer for his decision.

He could almost hear the searing of the blund object as the men holding it swung it into his direction. As he couldn't see what was going on – and he actually had no idea how the other man was doing so – he had no chance to prepare himself for the impact.

He hit him hard, the first hit connecting with his ribcage. He could feel at least two of his ribs break, as he had feared it to happen and he couldn't help but gasp for air and cry out in pain. They had just started their torment and he already felt the pain overwhelming him. He wasn't supposed to endure something like this, nobody was.

The next impact was even worse and it felt like his assailant had used some other object to hit him, the object connecting with his left leg and breaking his tibia instantly – the bone splattering. He screamed now, not being able to put any more weight on his left leg, but still trying to escape from the man in front of him. He however didn't get a chance to do anything in his protection for it happened a second time, causing him to fully lose the ability to put weight on his legs as the bone in his right leg was severly injured now, straining his full bodyweight on his already sore arms.

"As you might remember – I told you there are two men beside you. The other one is having a knife with him and he is eager to use it. But we can end this whole process right here, if you are willing to help me and answer my question."

Danny breathed hard, trying to ignore the pain in his broken legs and not even clearly listening to the words being said to him. But he wouldn't answer, he wouldn't give in to the still polite questioning of the man in front of him although he was just being tortured by his two goddamn handy men.

The elder man didn't seem to feel any need to talk to him any more, but he obviously had given some sign to the two men aside of Danny. He could feel the steel blade cut through the fabric of his T-shirt leaving him exposed to further injury and he didn't have to wait for it any longer, as the cold steel blade cut a deep wound to his back and yet another one and another one...


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24:

Dr. Collins had her routine check up on her ICU patients this morning, getting the information from the nurses' night shift. She was lucky to be informed about the fact, that Danny Taylor's blood gases had improved and that she would be able to get him off the respirator. This was a good sign, actually more of a good sign than she had hoped for.

She had decided to do this herself. Of course she could have assigned one of the nurses to do it. But she had been taking care of him so far and he did know her. She didn't want him to go through this process with someone he didn't know after all. It would be difficult enough for him.

When she entered the room some minutes later, she most definitely knew that it would get difficult for her. He winced as soon as she entered his room and she had to be gentle with him. He wouldn't listen to her if she didn't, not even talking about trusting her. He didn't know her very well and after the trauma he had been put through, trust was a thing he definitely wouldn't give away that easily for a long time to come.

She tried to find the right tone for her words – telling him what she would do. She couldn't get too emotionally attached and neither could she be too rational. She needed to find the right balance between it, finding a way through his emotional barricade and reaching him with her words.

„I'm gonna remove the tube now, Mr. Taylor. It's a rather easy process, but it's uncomfortable and it's most likely going to hurt – but just for a moment. I know it's hard, but I want you to try to relax."

She stopped explaining the process to him, giving him some time to think about her advice and calm down. She had expected the reaction of agitation and she knew this wouldn't work if he wouldn't be relaxed. She was in need of his cooperation on this one and it was her responsibility to make him see that.

But it didn't work out the way she had wanted it to. He had been frightened from the beginning – uneasy at least – since she had entered the room and she could completely understand that. She suspected that the last time somebody had entered a room with him being unable to get away, held back in place on a bed, had been while he had been tortured. No wonder he was afraid.

"I'm not going to hurt you and this is gonna be over in a minute, but I really need you to relax. The more you tense up, the harder it gets for me to remove the tube and I really don't want to hurt you. You have to work with me – not against, I need your help with this.

She was aware of the fact, that the level of pain medication left him partly unaware of his surrounding – which actually was a good thing. The discomfort and the simple pain he was still forced to experience made it inevitable. However she seemed to have reached him now – his features finally relaxing and the expression on his face telling her, that he was willing to help her.

"Alright, I'm gonna explain to you what is going to happen next. I will take off the tape now and then I want you to breathe in deeply. I know this is difficult, but you have to try. As soon as I tell you to exhale, you need to do so and I'm going to remove the tube. It's an unpleasant sensation – as I already told you – but it will pass by in a few seconds. Try to breathe normally and deeply afterwards – you really need to focus on that. If you start hyperventilating I will be forced to put the tube back in – I believe neither of us wants that."

She waited another few seconds before she removed the tape, never losing eye contact with her patient and keeping a close look on his reactions. There was still the – rather elaborate – possibility of him feeling threatened by her actions and reacting with panic. But so far it went well. She gave him a reassuring smile while she was working, hoping to soothe him.

"I want you to breathe in, now."

She was carefully taking the tube into one hand and kept a close look on him. He was tightly holding on to the bed underneath him, grabbing the bedsheets with his hands – like his life was clinging to it. But she knew it was a perfectly normal reaction, it was the effort of getting the own breathing working – against the tube.

"Okay. Exhale."

She could feel his reaction and quickly but gently pulled the tube from its position. She knew it was extremely discomforting, even painful if not done the right way – too roughly – and his facial expression clearly told her that he felt that way right now. She was relieved as she heard him take in a deep shuddering breath, but then he started to cough.

"It's okay, it's fine. You have done very well. Please try to relax, try to take a deep breath."

He was having troubles following her order and she was pretty sure he was on the edge of panic. She could see it in the way he was reacting. She was forced to hold him down, as his body seemed to reach out to finally get some oxygen. But she needed to keep him from moving and aggravating any of the slowly healing injuries.

"Calm down, you need to calm down. Breathe – deep and slowly. It's gonna be okay – just breathe."

It took some more very long uncomfortable moments, but it seemed to finally work. He took a breath – as shaky as the first one – and a few of the same kind were following, until his breathing was slowly normalizing. She let go of his shoulders and took a step backwards – giving him some more room and smiled.

"Very well. You have done good, very good."

She could see his face contort in concentration, which definitely was not an effect of the effort of deep breathing. She realised what he was up to – he was trying to form some words, ask her something, demanding to know about the miserable situation he was trapped in. And although so far she had no knowledge about his memory and it would have been a good thing to find out, to estimate the psychological consequences of the assault, but she stopped him.

"Don't. Just don't try to speak right now. The tube has been in place for almost a week. Your throat is sore from the pressure put on it by the tube and you will have difficulties for at least another day or two. Just don't try. Give it some more time – it's gonna be okay."

He frowned – a reaction which made her understand that he was unwilling to obey to her proposal. Obviously she wouldn't be able to keep him from trying anyway and she could understand his wish. After the trauma he had been put through and the realisation of a completely different surrounding when he woke up again, it was most normal for him to search for answers.

But he wasn't in much of a shape to form any word after all, though he tried really hard. She knew it was a frustrating thing – to know what you wanted to say, but not being able to. She had become quite good in guessing patient's questions by single words announced to her under great difficulties.

She was still astonished everytime she had to remove a tube. The discomfort and aftereffects of that medical treatments were wide spreading. She had done this some several hundred times in her career – placing and removing these things and she still couldn't even imagine what it must feel like. Of course she had heard from patients, but that didn't make the imagination any easier. She just hoped she never would be forced to experience.

"Week...?"

He whispered the one single word and as she had expected it, it was too much an effort to form any more words. His voice was low, raspy and she could hear that it had been most definitely painful and exhausting. It wasn't much of a surprise – taking his current condition into consideration – but still she felt sad about it. She still did – everytime she had to listen, but she smiled at him none the less.

"You have been taken here eight days ago. Since that time you have been unconscious. This has been Monday morning, the 16th."

She could see confusion on his face and he wasn't to blame for it. Losing a whole week just like this, without even knowing about it - was a hard thing to take. But she wasn't supposed to keep the truth from him, she needed him to find out what had happened to him. He tried once again his voice almost not able right now. She needed to lean in closer to understand him.

"Before?"

She was surprised by his question, but she didn't let it show. She didn't want to push him. He would remember sooner or later and even if he would not – it would definitely be better for him.

"Don't you remember?"

"No."

She wasn't sure about his answer, but she didn't insist. He had been through a very hard and trying time and he really didn't need to be pushed into remembering by her. He would need time and a lot of assurance. She would not talk against him – she had no right to do so. She smiled at him for another time and then turned to leave.

"That's okay. I'm gonna leave you alone now. I will tell your co-worker he may come back inside, if that's okay with you?"

He nodded slowly without saying another word, obviously feeling exhausted. The process she had forced him through hadn't actually left much of any other outcome. But she was happy she had him breathing on his own again. His recovery process had begun and he would need a lot more time to get better, but he would. And as she hadn't even been sure he would recover after all, this was a very, very good outcome of events. An outcome she was relieved about.


	25. Chapter 25

A.N.: Here I am again to provide you with yet another chapter. Have fun reading it!

Chapter 25:

Dr. Collins was surprised – it was the simplest, most basic but also most truthful way to put her feelings. She was simply surprised by her patient's recovery. Being honest with herself she hadn't had much of any hope. She had already been preparing herself to call his superior and inform him about his fellow agent's death. She had never expected him to recover that quickly.

However calling it a miracle or a gift, wasn't right. She couldn't even imagine how hard all this was for her patient – the pain, the memories, the helplessness and the constant dependance on others. She had caught herself in thinking about the question, if death maybe had been the better way for him. At least he wouldn't have to go through all this right now, wouldn't be forced to cope.

She knew it was hard to think it and she had blamed herself for it, but still there was some truth this thought. He had lost himself – everything he had been, he had believed in had died during that days of his horrible assault and nobody could ever give it back to him. He wasn't the same person any more and no matter how hard the doctors tried and how hard he tried, he never would be.

The life he had known had ended that day and he was left with the challenge of coping with that cruel fact and start a new one. He needed to learn to accept all this pain and pull through it. She herself thought of this task as barely manageable.

But he was stubborn – she had seen it several times now since he was under her care. He hadn't been willing to give up, he had been fighting and maybe he was strong enough to fight some more... She had almost lost him twice already, but he still hadn't given up and she felt like it was her responsibility to not give up on him.

The word miracle came back to her mind – the definition called it an unexplainable event opposing with common events – and that was exactly what this was all about. Danny Taylor's recovery was beyond her explanations, even beyond her understanding. It seemed to her like he had been granted a second chance in life and it was up to him to take it now.

As she remembered the moment she had first seen him – his tortured, bruised, bloodied still form lying on the ground in front of the E.R., dumped like some sort of waste or a dead animal, she wasn't able to put it in any other way. It had been a miracle...

Flashback

She had taken some time for a short break in her double shift down in E.R. and was standing outside the emergency entrance with a cup of coffee in her hand. It was 2 am in the morning and she really wished to get some sleep. Of course she couldn't do that and the coffee was definitely helping against the urgent wish.

She was shivering slightly from the cold outside, but she was grateful on the other hand. It helped her clear her mind and stay focused on her job. So far it had been a quiet night, which really hadn't made it much easier for her to keep herself awake.

She was warming her hands on the styrofoam cup and breathed in deeply, taking the cool night air into her lungs. It was a wonderful change from the sterile smell of formaldehyde inside the emergency room. And she was enjoying the silence out here – the E.R. was a hectic place – quietness was something one would never experience in there.

Her moment of silent gathering was suddenly interrupted by the screeching of tires nearby. Probably an ambulance, braking at the corner to the hospital to get to the E.R. She sighed inwardly – she would finally be provided with some work for this night.

What she heard next caused her to frown in surprise – she could hear something, apparently a body, fall to the ground and next a door slam shut. The car's motor roared as they speeded away again, leaving her completely astonished about what had just happened.

Without thinking she hurried away from the entrance to the spot she believed the sounds had come from, dropping her cup of coffee to a nearby garbage can. The corner to the hospital entrance was completely dark and her eyes needed some seconds to get used to the surrounding around her.

She had been right – it was a body and the sight of it caused her to swallow hard. He was lying on his side, his body bruised and covered in dark stains of dried blood. Both his legs were lying in a sickening angle, which told her that they were definitely broken. She reached out a hand, feeling for a pulse but she couldn't detect one.

She was sure he had been alive when whoever had brought him here, had dropped him off the car. Otherwise they wouldn't have troubled themselves with bringing him here. She gently turned him on his back, firmly holding his neck in position, hoping that she wouldn't aggravate his injuries.

She knew she couldn't help him on her own – he needed a qualified team of nurses and doctors and an E.R. trauma room, but neither could she leave him alone. She did the only other reasonable thing she could do without leaving him alone. She cried out for help at the top of her lungs, hoping for someone to hear her.

„Help me! I need help!"

She didn't bother to listen for anyone to come and react to her words. One of the nurses had assured her she would follow her outside a few minutes later – she most definitely had heard her. She however didn't have time to waste. She immediately started CPR hoping to be able to help the severely injured man.

She felt relief wash over her as she heard footsteps of someone rushing to her. It was the young nurse she had been talking to, she had heard her calling out. Dr. Collins didn't bother to look up at her, going on to try to save the injured man's life.

„Dr. Collins – what happened?"

„Get me two more nurses, some canulas, a bag of salina, a respirator and a gurney, Rachel. And hurry!"

The young nurse – whom Dr. Collins, as she had to admit, didn't know very well – obviously had some E.R. experience. She didn't ask any questions or waste any time but turned on her heels and ran back to the E.R. entrance doors. Dr. Collins checked on her patient's vitals once again, but so far there hadn't been any progress. Some minutes later Rachel returned with the supplies requested, one of the other E.R. doctors asking her about the situation.

„How is he?"

„No pulse, no breathing – that's all I can tell so far. He was dropped off by someone about five to ten minutes ago, since that I tried to stabilize him without any success so far. We need to get him on that gurney and inside, I can't do anything for him around here. Come on, let's hurry!"

They followed her orders quickly and efficiently, getting an IV line going and a respirator working. Her patient was gently lifted onto a gurney and rushed into the E.R. while they were still trying to stabilize him. She was relieved when the effort was finally rewarded with some success.

„Dr. Collins – I got a pulse."

It took them almost another hour of work – tubing her patient, getting the wounds and broken bones crucially set, checking for internal bleedings and cleaning the wounds. She didn't even realize who she was treating, until one of the nurses started cleaning the wounds on her patient's face. She couldn't help but stop in what she was doing for a moment, looking at him.

„What is it, Dr. Collins?"

„I know this man..."

End of flashback


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26:

Jack had driven down to the Court House, taking Vivian with him this morning. Today the judge in charge of the Chilean's case would decide, if the evidence available was enough to permit a trial about their crimes and a decision about sending them back to Chile.

He and Elizabeth had agreed to meet at court, although he had repeatedly offered her to take her with him. She hadn't wanted that however – rather from a lack of trust or because she still felt uncomfortable around him due to what had happened just because she had asked for help. He didn't push her – she was a grown up woman and able to decide on her own.

However her unwillingness now resulted in them being forced to wait for her arrival. The trial was set for 10:30 and it was already past ten - the time they had agreed on to meet here. She was late and he wasn't able to explain it – as eager as she had been about justice finally being served on the people she had tried to track down for the past two years.

Still he and Vivian were forced to wait for her and so far there was not even the slightest sign of her arrival. Neither was there any explanation for her being late – she hadn't called him or anyone else of the team, she simply wasn't there. He was nervous about that and it was visible to Vivian.

„Wasn't she supposed to come here today – present her evidence and testify against them?"

He nodded absent minded, his eyes still fixed on the entrance doors of the official building, hoping to detect Elizabeth's face. He ordered himself to stay calm and tried to convince himself that she was simply late. Maybe she hadn't gotten up in time, had been held back by some neighbor, had missed the sub... There were about a million reasons why she would be late.

His mind however was fixed on the one reason for her not being here that was really worrisome. He feared she had been kept from coming here – had been kidnapped or even killed. After everything he knew about the Chileans so far, it seemed like a pretty reasonable explanation.

He had wanted her to be kept under surveillance. Had asked her to agree to the protection being offered to her, but she had denied that. She had been convinced that she had been able to protect herself, and that apart from that, there was no reason to protect here because she wasn't an important part. Her evidence was speaking for itself and it was in the hands of FBI. Killing her would be of no use and neither would it make any sense.

But Jack had the slight impression that sense and reason wasn't something to be expected by that group of murderers and torturers. They hadn't needed a good reason to kill people before – they definitely wouldn't need one this time. Apart from that, they probably took Elizabeth's investigation personal.

They didn't believe that they had done anything wrong, that the task´ they had done, the duty they had fulfilled some twenty years ago in their home country had been a rightful one. They had acted out in loyalty to the government and had obeyed to the orders given to them. That they had done so with pleasure was a completely different thing.

But now Elizabeth had come up – representing the loved ones of those people they had tortured and killed. She had come here with a file full of cruelties and painful memories and she had accused them of a crime. She had come here to take them back and have them sentenced for a crime, which – in their eyes – they never committed. Of course they were infuriated about her actions...

Coming back to her believe that killing her was senseless... The attack on Danny had neither been useful nor reasonable. The evidence he had gathered could have been taken from him without doing what had been done to him. But it had happened none the less – the Chileans had taken this one personal, too.

And this was exactly the reason for Jack's discomfort about Elizabeth not showing up. That nagging sensation,that feeling in the pit of his stomach, which told him something was terribly wrong... He was taken back to the situation around him, when Vivian addressed him once again.

"You think something happened to her."

She didn't even bother to put it as a question and as she already seemed to know the answer, he didn't provide her with one. His emotions must have been clearly showing on his face. Like she had been able to read from his features what he had been thinking about. But after the past days' events and the stuff Elizabeth had told them about the Chileans, that wasn't much of a surprise.

"I'll see if I can reach her. Hopefully she's just late."

He flipped his cell open, dialing the number to Elizabeth's apartment. He could hear the phone ringing for several times before he hung up again and tried her cell – with the very same result. He even tried at the office – hoping she had called or been there to explain why she was late, but nobody had heard from her. Finally he put the cell away, facing Vivian.

"I can't reach her. She definitely should be here by now. She wouldn't miss this trial – for nothing in the world. She has put two and a half years of her life into this, she would never give up now, being so close to serving justice and getting what all these families want."

"Do you think they took her – or killed her?"

"It's the best explanation... But if they did, they won't tell us."

"But it's not making any sense, Jack. The evidence is there, they can't prevent being sentenced."

"They managed to delay the trial – as long as Elizabeth will not be able to present her evidence today, the hearing will be reset. The judge will keep it on hold as long as Elizabeth isn't found."

"If they really took her, we won't find her then. I mean, these guys are good, they managed to hide a **mass grave** for more then twenty years, they will manage to hide her."

She was right – it was close to hopeless to try and find her, if Beth really had been taken by the Chileans. But they didn't know that for sure. Chances – although they were low – were that maybe there was some other explanation and it was their responsibility to find out.

"So what do you wanna do about it now?"

"We have to try to find her. But for the moment we need to prevent the judge from setting the Chileans free, which he most definitely will do for the moment, if Elizabeth won't testify. I have that certain feeling it would be better if they were kept in federal custody."


	27. Chapter 27

A.N.: Sorry for the delay, but I just returned from my summer vacation last night. So here's your new update. A warning goes along with this chapter – the descriptions are pretty graphic, so if you feel offended by it you probably shouldn't read it... You've been warned! Enjoy reading.

Chapter 27:

They had returned to the dark room he was trapped in – but this time his assailant wasn't alone. There were two of them, the one who had been talking to him before and another one, Danny hadn't encountered before. They had come back with the very same question and he already knew he would provide them with the very same answer.

„Agent Taylor, are you willing to cooperate now? Will you tell us what information Elizabeth Tejar shared with you?"

„Go to hell!"

He had wished for his voice to sound stronger and more confident, but his remark hadn't been more than a hoarse cry. He knew he was losing his strength and unfortunately his opponents knew that, too. But he was not willing to give up – he couldn't do that. They would kill him as soon as he gave them the information requested.

„Turn him on his stomach – I'm gonna make him talk."

Danny had no idea what the second man beside his torturer was up to and he didn't want to find out actually. He couldn't endure much more of this – the pain, the embarrassment, the fear. He needed all this to stop, needed to be released. He was close to the edge and he knew that – they would break him, sooner or later and if this would go on for any longer they would manage. They would make him scream out in pain hysterically and cry about the desperation of his situation.

The other man around laughed friendlessly and roughly did what he had been asked to do. Danny couldn't help but cry out in pain when the man touched some of his injuries and aggravated the pain, especially the one to his wrists due to moving him around.

„You sure you don't wanna tell us what you know about Elizabeth Tejar?"

Danny didn't answer – he wouldn't give in to them, he wouldn't help them, no matter what they did. Then he heard a sound and this sound made him feel nauseous immediately – it was the sound of someone unzipping his pants. All of a sudden he realized what this would be about, what the other man would be doing to him.

He tried to shift in his position, tried to move as far away from them as he was able, but the stitching pain in his wrists kept him from getting away. He felt the urgent need to throw up, and he also felt tears forming in his eyes. He knew he couldn't prevent this, he couldn't keep it from him. Even if he would give in right now – these guys were sick, they were psychopaths, they liked to inflict pain. They would still do this to him even if he would give in.

He told himself to stay strong, to shut out the pain and the situation around him, told himself to not give in, not give up. He needed to stay calm, keep his breathing slow and easy and not start to cry about what was going to happen to him. He wouldn't show fear – not to them. They would not break him – not like this.

But as soon as the other man approached him, ripping the shorts from his lower body – he lost it. He completely lost his composure, unable to hold back his emotions any longer – he panicked. His voice was trembling, showing all of his fear and hopelessness and he could feel the hot tears rise in his eyes.

„Please, don't. Don't do this to me. Please stop, stop doing this. Please..."

„Will you tell us what you know?"

„I,..., I can't."

„Then this can't be avoided."

He could hear the other man laugh in the cruelest way he had ever heard. He couldn't do anything, he couldn't stop this, he couldn't avoid it. They would break him, invade his privacy in the worst way possible, take every last bit of dignity away from him. And his attacker's reaction was making it far more worse.

„He's a beautiful young man...However, Agent Taylor, I'm a little out of practice. It's some time that I last did this – the dictatorship is long over, you know. It may hurt a little..."

„Good god... Please don't do this – you can't do this to me... I beg you..."

He wished to be dead right now, not having to go through this, not losing the last bit of his innocence in such a horrible way. He at least hoped he would be unconscious – some state of mind that would prevent him from enduring this torment. But it wouldn't come.

He could feel the other man's weight on the bedside as he kneeled down on it. He winced when he was touched roughly by his attacker, who moved him back into his former position – the one he had tried to escape from.

He was completely unable to react, his body numbed and paralyzed with fear and desperation. He felt like he wasn't really present anymore, but was looking at this whole scene from some other perspective, like he wasn't really affected by this whole situation. It felt unreal, much too unreal to believe it, but it was happening and it was happening to him.

The other man was taking a position right behind him in a very slow way, enjoying every last moment of fear he caused to his victim. Danny's breathing quickened and he could no longer keep himself from sobbing uncontrollably. Somewhere in the back of his mind he realized that he started to hyperventilate.

Hopefully this physical reaction would be helpful to him, hopefully he would start to feel dizzy, not having enough air and losing consciousness before he would be assaulted in this horrible way. He silently prayed for unconsciousness to come and save him.

„Now boy – you won't pass out on me, will you? You will miss all the fun."

He knew it was of no use, but he at least had to try for one last time. They couldn't be that cruel and inhuman after all? They couldn't really mean to do this to him? He needed to try to save himself from this, needed to stop it from happening.

„Please, just let me go. There's nothing I can help you with. You don't have to do this. Don't do this to me. Please!"

„I love it when they plead for mercy, don't you?"

The other man didn't answer the question, but he didn't need to. His assailant had no mercy for him and he wouldn't stop. He was even feeling pleasure due to his desperate plea for help and the hopelessness in his voice. Danny knew that he had no chance after all. He would have to go through this, he would have to suffer, go on suffering – nothing could change it.

„Talktime is over now, boy. Let's have some fun, won't we?"

Danny was unable to respond, being absolutely terrorized by the events around him, as the other man shifted into position behind him. He leaned down over him slowly, very slowly. Danny could feel the warmth of the other body close to him and he had to swallow the sudden nausea in his throat down. He would've thrown up otherwise.

He screamed out in agony – not only from the physical pain, but also from the heart piercing injustice and embarrassment lying within this assault – as the other man forced himself on him. He cried now, he couldn't do anything against it and his attacker's reaction – his laughter due to the pain he was inflicting made it even more worse.

He had prayed for unconsciousness, had really and deeply prayed to god to not let him have to go through this. He hadn't prayed in a long time before and obviously the lord was angry with him, because his prayers weren't granted.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28:

Since the tube had been removed and – as Dr. Collins had told him – the level of medication had minimized, Danny was a lot more aware of his surrounding. It was easier to control his emotions right now, keep them at bay, keep them suppressed. But still – every time someone entered this room, even if they were knocking before entering, he couldn't help but wince.

It wasn't any different as a young nurse entered his room right now, frightening him and forcing him to tell himself to relax. He didn't want anyone to notice how deeply scared he was by anything that would in any way remind him of his experience. It also explained the rude tone of his words, when he addressed the nurse.

„What do you want?"

„I have to change the bandages."

Terror materialized in his eyes almost immediately as he realized what this would mean. He knew the most severe injuries, the one's he had been in surgery for, were those on his chest and side. It meant for the nurse take of the shirt, leaving him completely exposed to her and it meant for her to touch him.

He had already been troubled when Dr. Collins had removed the tube, although she had barely been touching him after all and he knew her for quite a while. But this woman was completely unknown to him and her job made it necessary to touch him at sensitive areas he didn't want her at.

He managed to calm for a moment, trying to find his composure and form some words that he hopefully would be able to announce in a steady tone. He didn't wanna sound pathetic, he didn't want her to see his fear of something as simple and necessary as the changing of bandages. But although he logically knew she was simply doing her job and that it prevented his wounds from getting infected, he didn't want her to do it.

„No."

„But I have to."

He tried to shift from his position in bed, further away from her and out of her reach, but it simply caused pain, not being useful after all. How the hell was it supposed to be futile anyway? With both his legs broken, there was no damn way to move anywhere. It was frustrating.

She approached to him, reaching out to him and he couldn't – for once again – help the sheer feeling of fear rushing over him, taking him over and getting a hold on him. Logic dis-appeared at that very moment, leaving only instinct behind, an instinct which told him to keep her away from him.

„Don't!"

He grabbed her by the arm forcefully, trying to hold her back and he could feel her wince and see the surprise and slight fear in her eyes. She probably asked herself where he had gathered the strength from – a patient who had still been in coma one and a half days ago – for he definitely managed to hurt her, her reaction showed it to him.

„Let go of my arm!"

He couldn't – even if he would've wanted to do so, he simply couldn't. He was far too afraid to listen to her plea and apart from that he really didn't want to let her go. The options left when he did so were anything but pleasing. She would rather tell the doctor, who would have him sedated then, sending him back to a world of darkness and nightmares again or she would try to approach him again."

„Let go of me!"

Obviously her calling for him to stop, had alarmed people, for seconds later he was confronted with Dr. Collins, who rushed into his room. She seemed to be surprised for a second, then angry for about another few, before her features relaxed and she slowly and carefully took a few steps closer to him.

„What's wrong?"

Danny didn't answer her question. But even if he would have wanted to do so, he wouldn't have gotten a chance. The young – and very frightened – nurse, immediately started to explain the situation from her point of view, her voice high pitched and hysterical.

„I just came here to change his bandages and then he attacked me! You need to help me, Dr. Collins – please."

The female doctor took another very careful step to the bed, ignoring the hysterical nurse completely and focusing all her attention on Danny, hoping to reach him by her presence and simply looking at him. She spoke clear and audibly, addressing him by first name – something she hadn't ever done since he was under her medical care

„Danny – it's okay. She's not going to harm you in any way. She didn't mean to threaten you. Everything's okay."

She hoped for any reaction from him, some sign which told her he was aware of her presence and able to listen to her. But there was no such reaction. He was still clinging to the young woman's arm, not willing to let her escape from his grip. She tried again none the less.

„Please – you have to let go of her. She won't hurt you, no one's gonna hurt you."

He wasn't listening to her, he probably wasn't even aware of her presence. He had been in a process of surpressing his memories of the incident since he first woke and this situation had caused some form of regressing. He was threatened by the nurse, because the situation he had been in had reminded him of something that had happened during that three days of torment.

But that didn't change the fact that he was in need of the medical treatment, the nurse had been assigned to give to him, and neither did it change the fact that he had to let her go. It was her responsibility however to make him see that.

„Look – she's simply just doing her job, she – in no way – intents to harm you. She doesn't want to do that. Okay?"

She took another step to the bed being only about half a meter away from him now and that finally caught his attention. He still wasn't letting go, but he turned to look at her – complete terror visible in his eyes. Whatever he had been reminded of, it was threatening him half to death.

„Get away!"

„You know I can't do this."

She tried to stay calm, giving her voice a soothing tone and hoping to calm him, have her own emotion radiate and make him see he couldn't do this, that he had to stop and that no one around here would ever hurt him. But it didn't work – he seemed too entangled in his memory to even realize he was still in a hospital.

„Just go!"

„I can't – I'm responsible for both of you, I can't just walk away."

„I told you to get away!"

He didn't even realize it until the young nurse cried out hysterically, but he obviously – in his anger about the doctor's rejection – had grabbed tighter to the woman's arm. He hadn't meant to hurt her, but obviously he had done so and in combination with her own hysteria, it probably felt far worse to her than it actually had been.

But it seemed to work. Dr. Collins was finally taking a few steps backwards. What he did not know, was the fact that she had already called for an orderly before she had entered this room, asking him to wait outside until she asked for his help. She had wished to avoid this situation, had hoped she would be able to talk him into letting the nurse go. But apparently that hadn't worked.

„Alright. I'm gonna go."

The young nurse's eyes widened in terror and her hysteria grew even more as she tried to once again struggle against the grip on her arm. Fortunately she was keeping Danny's attention from the door where Dr. Collins had just silently signaled the orderly to follow her. For now she was just hoping the nurse's desperate struggle wouldn't cause her patient any harm. He had been through enough.

They were by his bedside before he even realized she had entered the room again. She couldn't help but feel sad about what she was forced to do, what the experience, the ordeal he had been put through forced her to do to him although she really didn't want to do it.

„I'm sorry."

Her whispered words caused him to look at her immediately, but he got no more chance to do anything about her newly made appearance next to his bed as the orderly forcefully grabbed him by the arm he held the nurse with. The sheer power of the other man caused him to let go of the young woman who immediately moved away from his bed in sheer panic.

He tried to struggle against the other and way stronger man and he knew it was fruitless, but he was too terrorized by this whole situation to have any rational thought after all. He just blindly tried to struggle and escape from the iron grip on his arm.

„Let go of me! Let go!"

„Hold him! You have to hold him down!"

He could hear Dr. Collins and he could hear the desperation in her voice, but he didn't care. She was doing this to him, she was hurting him and he simply wanted her to stop. He had been cursing at the orderly already and now he told her to stop and let go of him. However she ignored him.

„You can't do this! You can not do this to me! Let me go – goddamn it, let go of me!"

„Hold his arm."

He immediately realized what she was about to do and he swore to himself that he wouldn't let this happen. He struggled even harder and he felt a sudden stitching pain in his wrist – the one that had been broken during the assault he had been put through. His fighting had obviously aggravated the injury, but he didn't care, he simply didn't care.

„No! Don't! Don't do this, don't hurt me!"

„Hold it steady, I don't wanna hurt him."

He could – once again since he had been under the doctor's care – feel the needle enter his vein, as Dr. Collins injected him with the sedative. It had an almost immediate affect and he felt all the will to fight die down. But he was still able to talk to her, though yelling at her was out of the question right now. He was just able to plead for mercy.

„Don't do this to me, please... Don't hurt me, just please don't..."

„Ssshhh. It's okay – I didn't mean to hurt you. It's gonna be okay."

She could see his features relax as the medication kicked in, but she didn't feel any triumph about it. This had been the worst outcome for this situation and she actually had in no way intended to have him sedated again. She knew his sleep was troubled with memories and nightmares, even if it came artificially.

She was losing that small bit of trust he had in her. She had been the one saving his life, but with every time she forced him to relive these nightmares again she was killing a part of him and she was slowly losing his trust. But there had been no other way. He had been too frightened to listen to her and she couldn't let him have his will. She was responsible for his security as well as the one of the people around him.

His reaction had scared her, she hadn't been expecting it. She had been aware of the fact that there might be some trouble with the process of changing the bandages, some emotional reaction, which had been her reason to send a female nurse. But she had never believed he would be reacting like that. It told her that, whatever trauma he had gone through in particular – it had been far worse than she had imagined so far.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29:

Vivian and Jack had entered the courtroom, the hearing about the further process in case of the Chileans would be decided about. Adamén and de Vierra, accompanied by their lawyer, were already there, awaiting the judge. They looked up at them as soon as they entered the room. Adamén was getting up from the place he was sitting at, wearing his ever so polite smile on his face when he greeted Jack.

„Agent Malone. I see you're interested to hear what Miss Tejar has to say about this – I'm sorry I still haven't found another idiom to describe it – ridiculous case."

Jack wasn't surprised the man was still as polite and self-assured as he had been when he had first questioned him. It confirmed Jack's grim suspicions about the reason and the ones responsible for Elizabeth not showing up here on time. Adamén didn't fear this hearing, because there was nothing for him to fear – the main witness wouldn't come here to testify, she wouldn't be able.

Jack didn't answer the question, the elder Chilean had asked him – he didn't want to talk to this guy. But the other man didn't seem to bother about what he wanted, he obviously felt much to triumphant about the outcome of events as that he simply would have kept quiet. He needed to show the two federal agents that he – for this time – had won over them.

„As I see you didn't bring the delightful young woman with you. I had believed she would be here already, she – as dedicated as she is to all these lies and faked evidence in her case file – wouldn't want to miss this event. Let's hope nothing had happened to her."

Adamén was trying to enrage him, trying to get him to show a reaction. They both knew he wasn't fearing for Elizabeth, he was perfectly informed about what had happened to her, but once again there was a complete lack of proof for this. Jack – being assured by a warning gaze from Vivian – however managed to keep his emotions under control. He wouldn't fight with this guy.

„Let's hope so."

He went away, leaving Adamén - who obviously had wished to go on talking to him - standing there, and sat down next to Vivian. She was looking at him intensively and he was sure she didn't feel any different about Adamén's statement.

„He knows what has happened to her."

„He perfectly does, but there's no way to prove it. He will give hints just like that one, simply to make us see we can't get to him, but he wouldn't testify – never."

They were interrupted as the judge entered the room right then and sat down. He looked at the Chileans and their lawyer first and then took a look at the two federal agents, a frown appearing on his face. He immediately had realized Elizabeth was missing – she was the one reason they all had come here today.

„Alright, we start this hearing now. I would like to hear about the evidence being gathered against Mr. Adamén and Mr. de Vierra. The court calls Mrs. Elizabeth Tejar to testify."

Of course nothing happened for Elizabeth wasn't here, she hadn't made her way to the court room and she wouldn't testify. The judge had an impatient look around the room and – as Elizabeth was nowhere to be found – fixed his gaze on Jack.

„Where is she?

„We don't know, your honor."

Jack was absolutely uncomfortable with the situation and the judge's question. He had hoped to have him on their side, but obviously he already was annoyed by the delay of the trial and he didn't seem willing to be faced with any more troubles. The judge's reaction – the anger in it – clearly showed it to the two federal agents.

„You don't know? You come up with this case, you assure me there is undeniable evidence and a witness and now she's not here and you don't know where she is?"

Jack had a short look at the opponents' lawyer and had a glimpse look at Cristobal Adamén. The smile on his face was still there. Jack looked back at the judge, getting up from his seat and took a deep breath before answering the question.

„No, your honor – I don't know where she is. She was supposed to meet with us about twenty minutes ago."

„But she didn't show up?"

„No, she didn't."

„Maybe she got cold feet?"

The judge's suggestion enangered Jack. But it was not out of the ordinary. This case was sloppy and on shaky feet from the beginning and now the key witness wasn't there. He didn't know Elizabeth, he couldn't imagine Elizabeth would never walk away from this, no matter what. But that's the way it was – the judge needed to know that.

„No, your honor, she did not, definitely not. She wanted to testify here today, I can't imagine any circumstances for her not to show up. Except for one."

„Except which?"

„Something has happened to her."

The judge looked at him in disbelief, not willing to even think about the suggestion. Jack however took the time to look at Adamén once again. He was directly looking at him as Jack glanced over to him and the smile on his face had changed into a smirk. The judges reaction however caused Jack to look back.

„So in the final analysis there is no one here to testify and present evidence."

„The evidence is still there your honor, Miss Tejar will simply not be able to present it."

„Your honor, this is ridiculous. There is no witness, there is no evidence – there is no reason for a trial after all. Miss Tejar didn't show up here and now we are told she has been harrassed or kidnapped. This is unbelievable, your honor. You have to put this case on hold."

The judge listened to the Chilean's lawyer carefully before he flipped through the few pages in front of him concerning the trial. He took a few moments of careful thinking and reconsidering before he looked back up facing Jack and giving him a hard look – probably not believing him and being more convinced by the lawyer's explanation.

„As she has been the prime witness in this case and she's not here to testify I see no other way but to delay this hearing until Miss Tejar can be found."


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30:

It was Martin's turn to sit with Danny right now and actually he didn't feel all too comfortable with it. But in a final analysis no one of them did, for no one of them knew how to react to Danny, to the person he had become since he had been brought to this hospital. He was dependable, he was weak and right now he was barely conscious – altogether he was not the man, who he used to be, and that made it very hard to react in an appropriate way.

Danny was sleeping right now, but he wasn't comfortable – one could see that. It seemed like he was having a bad dream, his face distorted and shifting slightly in his bed, like he tried to escape from someone or something. His breathing quick and shallow.

All of a sudden he started to moan, words forming in his sleep, not understandable at first, but getting more clearly every time Danny repeated them until they were audible in the room, audible to Martin.

„Let go of me!"

He had no idea what Danny was talking about, had no idea what he was thinking that was going on around him. Martin hadn't tried to hurt him, at least he believed he hadn't done anything that would inflict any pain to his co-worker. He was most probably dreaming about the events that had caused his injuries and Martin tried to soothe his sleep.

„Danny – calm down, it's okay. No one's gonna hurt you..."

He really didn't know if he was doing any good or if he was just making it worse by what he said. Something was definitely wrong, but he couldn't put a finger on what it was. He simply just wished to help Danny in some way, but he lacked of enough knowledge about Danny's condition – especially his psychological one, to really help him.

He did the one thing he could think of, the one thing he thought would be right to help him, lessen his co-workers fear and gently touched him by the arm, hoping to reach him and show him his support. The reaction was immediate and unlike anything Martin had expected.

Danny winced, trying to move away from Martin as far as he could, shifting in the hospital bed, his eyes suddenly widening with terror. He reached for his hand, shoving it away roughly, before he screamed at him – a hoarse, desperate plea for help.

"Don't touch me! Let go of me! Leave me alone!"

Martin wasn't sure if Danny was even aware of what he was saying, if he really meant it that way, although his reaction had caused Martin to wince and take the hand back for the moment. Unfortunately he believed that Danny was simply having a bad dream, reliving the events of his traumatizing assault. Little did he know of the real reason for Danny's reaction.

His co-worker's condition, the terror in his eyes, the quickened breathing and rapid heartbeat dictated Martin to do something to help him, soothe him. He took a step back to the bed and reached out a hand for a second time, gently touching Danny again.

"It's okay, Danny – it's okay. You're safe, you're in hospital, remember. No one's gonna hurt you."

Danny's reaction however left Martin deeply concerned. He started to sob, tears streaming down his face and completely unable to control his emotions. He still tried to get away from the hand touching him and his pain-ridden, whispered words were a silent plea for mercy.

"Please, don't do this. Let me go, please let me go. Don't hurt me."

Martin took his hand away, taking a step backwards from the bed and not knowing what to do. Talking to Danny hadn't helped and touching him had caused an even worse reaction. He had no idea how to react to this for he did not know what he had done wrong before. But he was absolutely taken aback by what he was forced to experience.

He had never seen Danny crying before – he had been angry, he had been sad or concerned and at times even emotionally attached while they had been working together, but he had never seen him like this. He hadn't even been able to imagine what it would be like to see the fellow agent cry.

He had that understanding that through the time of working together he had come to know Danny – at least up to a certain point. He was a self-assured person, cocky, even annoying at times, but this had nothing to do with the person, Martin had experienced. Whatever it was that had caused Danny's reaction – it must have been deeply, deeply traumatizing, this much he did know.

A nurse entered the room right now, rushing past him and shooting him a reproachful look, but not saying anything. Obviously she had been guarding Danny's vitals, seeing his breathing and heartbeat quicken and had come here to check on him. She was holding a syringe in one of her hands, which's content she injected to one of the IV lines.

"It's okay, it's gonna be okay. You're in hospital – you remember? You are safe. It's going to be better in a moment. Just hold on. It will be alright, just try to calm down."

Martin realized that she held a quite great distance for the fact that she was trying to calm Danny. She did not touch him, not letting him know she was present. The syringe's content however - most definitely some form of sedative - in combination with the nurse's calming words, was helping. Danny seemed to relax. Finally the young woman addressed Martin in an angry tone.

"What happened!"

"I,.., I don't know. He yelled at me for no apparent reason..."

"What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything, goddamn it!"

"You must have done something otherwise he wouldn't have reacted like that. Tell me exactly what happened."

"He was crying out in his sleep and I tried to calm him, talked to him but that didn't work. So I touched him by his arm to let him know he wasn't alone and all of a sudden he started yelling at me."

The look on the nurse's face – contorted in anger and reproach just moments ago – changed into a sympathetic, sad expression. Obviously he had managed to convince her that he hadn't done anything wrong, but he couldn't get rid of the impression that there was something else about her reaction, something she knew that he wasn't aware of.

"You didn't do anything wrong, I'm sorry I attacked you. Just don't touch him, okay?"

"Okay."

But it wasn't okay, it definitely wasn't okay. Not for Martin and even more not for Danny. Whatever the nurse knew about his co-worker's condition, it was obviously dreadful enough to cause Danny such nightmares and to not enable the nurse to tell him what was going on, but simply ask him to do what she wanted him to.

He wasn't sure if he had a right to know anyway. Of course he knew Danny, but apart from working with him he didn't know much of a thing about him. He had no right to invade his privacy like that – hell, actually he didn't even have the right to sit by his bed right now. He was not a family member.

But still – the nurse's reactions and Danny's fear had left him uncomfortable and thoughtful. He was trying to imagine what it must've felt like for Danny – being all alone, not knowing if he would survive, if the pain would ever end again and not being able to do anything for his own protection. He couldn't – he simply couldn't imagine a situation like that.

It was a miracle, Danny was still as sane as he seemed after this whole ordeal. A nightmare seemed the slightest reaction to what had happened to him – body and soul. Actually he had been stronger than anyone had ever believed. Even his doctor in charge hadn't been sure of his recovery.

However that didn't make his situation – right now – any better. It simply wasn't fair, this hadn't been supposed to happen and it most definitely could have been avoided. But it was too late for these thoughts now, too late and not even futile for one second to think about it. They couldn't change what had happened – no matter how hard they were thinking about it,

over and over again – they only could try to cope with it.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31:

Dr. Collins had – after the most severe injuries had begun a healing process – decided to transfer Danny to the psychiatric station. Of course he had been fighting with her rather heatedly and long. He had assured her he was fine and that he didn't need a therapist, but she hadn't given in.

Nobody ever wanted to enter that wing of the hospital willingly and especially after what had happened to him, she could understand he didn't want to go there – talking about it was definitely not one of the things he wanted to do. But she couldn't just let him go – it was hospital policy and he needed to be checked.

He had lost that fight against her and he didn't really have much of any chance to insist against it and so he had been transferred. As to be expected he hadn't been cooperative – not with the psychologist and not with the hospital personell, responsible for taking care of him while he was there.

There had been an especially uncomfortable relationship to one of the orderlies – Marcus Hayes. He was having a problem with Danny since he had first arrived here, although nobody was entirely sure where that problem came from. Maybe it was because of the injured man's profession or because of his ethnics, but whatever it was – Marcus was giving him a pretty hard time.

Fortunately the orderly was not informed of the details of Danny's injuries or the exact reason why he had been transferred. But Marcus had found subtle enough ways to pick on him, obviously not expecting much of any defense from the other man. So far Danny hadn't really reacted to the orderly's attempts – up until this morning.

Danny had been in the community room of the hospital wing, sitting there close to the window as uncommunicative as he had been since the first day of his transfer. Marcus however – obviously having a particularly bad day – had asked him to get up and get back to his room in a rather rough tone. He however received no reaction, which obviously made him decide to get physical on Danny.

He roughly grabbed him by his shoulder, trying to get his attention and it was the one wrong move to make. Danny's sensitivity about being touched hadn't vanished, it had rather grown and now that the male orderly dared to touch him and actually hurt him by doing so – Danny simply just lost it.

He felt the urgent need to defend himself and although he was injured and actually unable to even walk on his own – due to the still healing broken legs he managed to attack the other man. His returning strength, in comparison with his sheer terror, his instincts and the surprising reaction he was able to hit the orderly in the face, caused Marcus to let go.

However the other man's reaction came back on Danny immediately. It had been the one thing he had been waiting for, since Danny had first entered this wing of the hospital. Although Danny had been trained in self-defense, his lack of ability to move around, and him not yet back at full strength, he had no chance to get away from Marcus.

The orderly managed to hold him down, though he did so with much of an effort. Danny was vehemently struggling against him in the moment of sheer panic the orderly's defense had caused. He frantically tried to get away, out of the arms grabbing him and forcing him down, but it wouldn't work.

„Get me some sedative, quick!"

Marcus called out to one of the nurses, who hurried to fulfill his demand. He was still struggling with Danny when the nurse came back – he wasn't willing to give up the fight against the orderly, although doing so hurt. His injuries were still way to grave to pull a stunt like that.

The nurse came back, unsure what to do with the medication she held in a syringe in her hands. The orderly looked at her in an annoyed way, like he asked himself why she was still standing there.

„Inject him with it, goddamn it! What are you waiting for?"

The orderly managed to hold Danny's arm down, leaving him completely exposed and helpless to the nurse who held the syringe in her hand. He finally found his voice again, realizing what she would be doing and that he didn't want to be taken back into this world of darkness where he couldn't escape his nightmares. He started cursing at the orderly, telling him he had no right to do that.

It caused the nurse to hesitate for another moment, but the orderly's gaze made her kneel down next to Danny and finally do what she had been asked to. Danny could feel the pinch as the needle was stuck into the vein of his arm and he stopped fighting for a moment – knowing she would hurt him if he moved against the needle in his arm.

He tried to struggle some more after she pulled the needle out again, but he could feel his will and strength die down more and more as the medication distributed itself in his blood stream. He could feel dizziness rush over him and it was getting harder to focus on his surrounding. He believed to hear the orderly ask the nurse to call his therapist, but he wasn't sure the other man had really said that. And seconds later everything went black around him.

The orderly **had** in fact called Danny's therapist - Dr. Riber - and she had hurried to come down here. She met the orderly in the community room, where she was asked by him to join him to the patients' private rooms. But he didn't seem to bother to tell her why she was here.

„What happened? Why did you call me?"

„It's one of your patients, Doctor. Daniel Taylor."

„What about him?"

„He's on medication right now, Dr. Riber. I had to have him sedated. He attacked me."

Dr. Riber took a look in Danny's room and at her patient in his bed. What she saw made her frown in surprise as a first reaction, before she turned to the orderly her face clearly showing her anger.

„He's in restraints!"

„As I told you – he attacked me. But he's calm for now – the medication kicked in..."

„Still you had no right to do this without consulting a doctor. We're gonna talk about it later, alright?"

„Yes, Dr. Riber."

She was aware that the orderly seemed in no way feeling like he had done anything wrong. She had been aware of the personal problem he seemed to have with her patient, but she had never believed it would cause such a situation. However she believed what the orderly had told her – he had been attacked, one could see it on his face and apart from that the orderly had no motivation to lie to her.

Her most difficult problem right now was to find out the reason for the situation, that had caused the orderly to have a bruise on his face now and her patient being on medication and in restraints. She had a certain believe, but she didn't wanna speculate – she wanted to hear it from her patient.

Dr. Riber entered the room taking a close look at Danny. He was calm right now, not struggling against the restraints holding him down, but she knew that was due to the medication. She had a look at his file and it had been a rather high dosage – another thing which the orderly hadn't had any right to do without consulting her. She would cope with that problem later, for now her primary concern was her patient. She addressed Danny in a soft but decisive tone.

„What happened? What happened to your face?"

„I was in a fight with one of your orderlies."

„Why?"

„Why don't you ask him."

„I will, but I wanna hear from you."

„Will you take of the restraints if I tell you?"

„No, I can't – you have been fighting with one of the orderlies, which – in medical terms – means that you are a danger to others. I can't take of the restraints, it's against hospital policy."

„Then there's nothing I can tell you."


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32:

As soon as they had been aware of Elizabeth's disappearance, even before Jack and Vivian had been forced to see the judge delaying the trial due to the current situation, Jack had called in to the office and asked them to start the search for Elizabeth.

He had hoped for some good news after all, when they returned, but he knew it was most definitely pointless. The Chileans were far too experienced to do anything wrong. But none the less they had to try to find the young woman.

Jack had headed over to Martin's desk, getting an update on the investigation results.

„What do we have so far?"

„Her apartment has been cleared out about three weeks ago. She obviously decided that it was much too dangerous to stay there, with the other two handy men of Adamén still out there. As to be expected she left no further address to her landlord.

No phone logs – neither home phone nor cell. Last outgoing call has been to the hospital that Friday morning before the trial. The nurse who took the call said, she asked if she may come there that very same afternoon. Seems like she finally came up with the courage to pay Danny a visit."

„She had a hard time deciding about that. She was blaming herself for what had happened, naturally. Of course it wasn't her fault - but that's easy for me or anyone else to say. I guess she was afraid of Danny's reaction..."

„She had plans for that day, Jack. Big plans – she was about to testify, she had planned on going to the hospital that afternoon. She hadn't meant to get away. Whatever happened to her didn't happen on her own free will."

They had known this before, but having proof on it made the situation even more desperate. Chances had been low already and they were fading into nothingness more and more. Elizabeth had been taken – there was no doubt about that.

„I didn't know she left her apartment. She didn't tell me, she didn't tell anyone around here. She must have had some other hiding place, some spot she felt safe at..."

He was thinking loud, more than he was actually talking to Martin. Jack had been surprised about that fact, especially as he had expected Elizabeth to inform them about such a thing. But as she hadn't been willing to give in to the protection offered, she obviously hadn't seen a necessity in sharing information...

„So - where did she go?"

„That's the one decisive question and the even more important one is – who knew about it? Someone must have betrayed her to them. We didn't even know she moved out of the apartment and if she didn't believe we were trustworthy enough to be informed about that fact, I can't think of a lot of other people who knew."

„I don't think anyone would have betrayed her. I mean the only people who would possibly know about it was that group she was working for – family members of people being tortured and killed by the two men that most definitely are responsible for Elizabeth's disappearance. No one would have betrayed her, not for anything in the world."

Martin was right – Elizabeth had been way too paranoid to trust someone she barely knew and the people she was representing had suffered far too much, due to the actions of the Chileans they had tracked down. There must have been some other reason why they had been able to find her that easily.

„Maybe she has been under surveillance, maybe they knew where she was and where she went to, even before we encountered her?"

„But that wouldn't make any sense, Jack. Why wouldn't they track her down or kill her – if she had been under their surveillance, they could have get rid of her much earlier. Why would they go after Danny instead of her, if they had known about her every step? It would have been much easier and it would have gathered a lot less attention. They could have found out about her investigation results without drawing the interest of a federal agency to themselves. So why didn't they do it?"

„Because she hadn't been a danger to them. She was a foreigner in a foreign country with no connections and no one she could ask for help. In her homecountry she was very well able to gather information, but this wasn't her turf..."

„She wasn't able to find them."

„Exactly – and that's why she never became a danger to them. Why should they bother killing her, if she wasn't even able to get close to them. Killing her would have drawn too much attention and it would have been far more dangerous – there could have been some evidence pointing to them and then they would have been in a hell of a lot of trouble – all for nothing."

„So you're saying she had never a chance to endanger them and therefore they left her be?"

„Yes – until she asked for help. Danny had a chance to help her track them down, he had connections and ways to find out, which she hadn't and he was willing to help her. From that point on all further investigation got dangerous for them. They had been found and they needed to do something against it."

„They did..."

It didn't need any further words to understand what he was referring to. This whole situation – the trial, Beth's disappearance, their search was all connected to what had happened to Danny and being confronted with it every day didn't make the task of finding Elizabeth any easier.

Especially as they couldn't be sure if Elizabeth had given some useful information to him that would help them track her down.

She had considered him trustworthy enough to share her investigation results with him and she had asked for his help. Maybe she had told him more than that, had told him where she would go if the situation with the Chileans would get out of hand. Maybe he knew about her hiding place.

Still Jack had decided not to ask him about it. He simply wasn't willing to confront him with the fact of Elizabeth's disappearance. It didn't need much of a genius to understand that her vanishing and the trial against the Chileans were connected. He didn't want Danny to cope with that – he wasn't even sure he was, under given circumstances, in any condition to actually do so. Giving that information to him could cause serious trouble, aggravating his already fragile mental state and Jack wasn't willing to risk that...

„We won't find her, will we?"

Martin asked him, interrupting him in his thoughts about his decision. He had expected this question way earlier, for everybody around here working on that case, was aware of what had most definitely happened to Beth. She had been to much of a risk to the Chileans and that risk had been eliminated.

„At least not alive."


	33. Chapter 33

A.N.: Sorry for the delay, but I had a few really crappy days... However I'm feeling better now and here's your update. Enjoy reading!

Chapter 33:

Dr. Riber had asked Danny to come to her office for a conversation and actually she was not looking forward to that. He didn't talk to her, didn't tell her anything about his experience and for her that meant, that he didn't trust her. She was used to addressing her patients by first name, but he hadn't even granted her that one favor.

Honestly – she did not know what to, had no idea how to help him. She had tried - she had tried really hard, but she simply would't get through to him. She had tried to talk to him, had tried defensively and with a lot of sympathy and she had tried by confronting him. She had tried with and without medication, but it simply wouldn't work.

She had no more chance to be miserable about her lack of progress as he entered her office right then. It was seven weeks since he had been brought to the hospital and his broken legs had healed by now. But as he hadn't been able to use them for the last few weeks, he was on crutches when he entered her office.

The aftermath of his injuries was no longer visible. He had been lucky – if one could say that in his case – the injuries on his face hadn't build any scars. But that didn't mean anything to her – she knew the scars she was supposed to tend lay way way deeper.

She gently asked him to sit down and gave him an intense gaze before asking the obligatory question to her patient.

„How are you?"

„I'm fine."

She had heard this answer from him once too often and at times it left such a frustrating feeling, she simply wished to yell at him, asking him to finally admit that he was not fine, that he was deeply, deeply traumatized by what had happened to him. She wanted him to finally agree to the help offered and let her do her job.

She knew it was nothing more but a wish – he wouldn't give in to her. Most probably not ever. She knew she needed to stay calm, but this conversation was already heading the wrong way and he still wasn't making it any easier for her.

„What did I come here for?"

„I'm your therapist. What do you think you came here for?"

„I don't know."

This was getting more and more frustrating. He perfectly well knew why he was here. He just didn't want to be here and unfortunatelly she couldn't make him stay. Neither in her office nor in the hospital for any longer. She had no reason to hold him here for any longer – she couldn't prove he was in any way a danger to anyone. She would have to let him go.

She had actually asked him to come here to tell him exactly that, but she had decided she would not do that without trying for one last time. It was her profession, it was her duty – she at least needed to try.

„Look - I know this is hard for you and I understand why you don't want to talk about it, but you have to. You need to talk to me, you need help to get through this and that's what I'm there for. I'm there for you."

„I already told you – I don't remember anything."

Frustration had a hold on her this time – she just couldn't keep herself from reacting in the one apropriate way to his behavior. Although as a psychologist she had to be very more careful, as a person – one with emotions as any other living being – she couldn't help it but confront him.

„That's not true."

„So what? I'm a liar?"

She hadn't expected any other reaction from him. His anger – the one reaction, which had replaced his fear – was controling most of his reactions nowadays although he mostly had himself under control. But the one thing he really didn't get along with was being confronted with anything having to do with his experience.

She needed to be more diplomatic on this matter – she didn't wanna fight with him. It was of no use, neither to him nor to her. She told herself to calm down and tried to get a conciliatory tone into her voice, showing him that she hadn't intended to hurt him.

„I didn't say that."

„What** are** you saying?"

„I'm saying that you need to deal with what has happened to you and you can't do it alone."

He seemed to think about her words for a few moments, not looking at her and she almost had the feeling he would listen to her. The expression on his face – especially in his eyes – told her all too clear what he was feeling about her words.

„As there is nothing I can remember, there is nothing I have to deal with."

She had no idea what to say to him any more – she had seldomly experienced that level of regression and ignorance with a patient – someone who was that absolutely unwilling to take another person's help. She needed his cooperation, which she didn't get and she was at her wits' end. He however seemed to interpret her silence as something else than frustration.

„Can I go?"

She surpressed a sigh, but breathed out audibly by his reaction. He however didn't seem to care that much about her emotional reaction, although he definitely knew what she was that frustrated about. Keeping him here wouldn't be in any way productive and she obviously couldn't make him talk to her – god knew she had tried...

She wouldn't tell him right now, she simply couldn't. She had still some hope for him and there were a few things she needed to take care of, before she would allow him to be a part of the real world outside of this hospital's wing once again. She needed for his surrounding to be prepared for him. But for now, she would allow him to leave.

„Sure."


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34:

When he had gotten to work this morning, getting to his office, a note from his superior, Van Doren, had already been awaiting him there, asking him to get to her office as soon as possible. This wasn't a good sign, not after all. He had no idea what she wanted to talk to him about – he just hoped it wasn't about the case they were working on.

He was very well aware that this whole affair with the Chileans was way more personal than it should be. It was concerning one of his agents and even if he would tell her so – he wasn't objective on that one. Lying to her about it, wouldn't be of much use, but he was not willing to lose this case.

There had been too many things happening so far – Danny's severe injuries, Elizabeth's disappearance, the first day of trial which had gone that catastrophically wrong – he wouldn't have this case given to someone else, he was willing to fight for that.

When he entered his superior's office right now, the expression on her face and the tone of her voice when she greeted him good morning, told him that something was deeply wrong. After everything he had experienced by now he really wasn't up to any more bad news. But he asked her none the less.

„What happened?"

„Elizabeth Tejar's evidence has been destroyed."

He couldn't believe what she had just said to him, believed he had misunderstood her in some way. He knew he most definitely looked at her in exactly that way, but she didn't reconsider or explain anything. She must have really been meaning it the way she said it. There was just one primary question he wanted to have answered now.

„How?"

„It looks like there has been a fire in the storage room the file has been in. So far we don't know how it happened, forensics is still checking the scenery."

This couldn't be true – it simply couldn't. It was just screaming of injustice. After all they had gone through in the last couple of days, they would have deserved some luck after all... Unfortunately this had widespread consequences. Elizabeth's file had been the only evidence they had and there was no copy of it.

Looking at it now, it seemed absolutely stupid to not have a security copy of the file – just in case. But it simply hadn't seemed necessary at that time. Even Elizabeth – although she had a very hard time trusting people – had been convinced, her file would be secure around here. Obviously she had been wrong – neither had they been able to protect her nor her evidence.

However Jack had the uncomfortable feeling that the destruction of the file hadn't happened by accident. That it hadn't just been some fire, but that there was someone responsible for it. And it didn't need much of a genius to figure out who that might be. He couldn't however believe they had managed to get in here. This was a federal building and it was secured. They couldn't just have walked in here and set a fire.

„What about security? Shouldn't they have realized what was going on? There are security cameras all over the place and there must have been an alarm if there had been a fire."

Her hesitation told him immediately that something had obviously not been alright about the security measures kept up at this place – some situation that had allowed this desaster to happen.

„They're also working on that, but so far there has been no sign of foul play... The cameras don't show anything unusual. However neither did they have an alarm last night. One of the agents reported it this morning."

„So there has definitely been someone down there, destroying the evidence knowingly. Otherwise the whole damn building might have burned down – a fire doesn't keep itself under control."

„That's what it looks like..."

„So you are telling me that we lost every last piece of evidence we had to get these bastards down and send them back to their home country to be sentenced there and we don't even have a copy or some other security to be used for that trial."

„Forensics is still looking for evidence on why or who caused the fire. Maybe we're lucky."

„Do you actually believe that?"

„No. Whoever was smart enough to get in here unnoticed wouldn't have left any form of evidence for us to find..."

He was thinking the exact same thing and apart from that he simply just felt angry – deeply enraged about what had happened here during the cause of the last night. This had been two and a half years of another person's dedication – of her life and it had been wiped out – just like that.

Of course both of them knew that the Chileans were somehow responsible for it. Just like they were responsible for Elizabeth's disappearance. But obviously kidnapping her hadn't been enough for them and unfortunately they couldn't prove it – neither the one nor the other crime. Which was the most frustrating thing about this whole incident.

Actually there was no more need for him to stay here, nothing more to be said about it, but his superior seemed to feel the urgent need to find some words to make this whole incident easier and to hold up some hope after all. Maybe she just wanted him to know that there was still a chance, though he didn't see how.

„How's the investigation going?"

She was referring to Elizabeth and he knew she just tried to make him focus on something more positive, something less inevitable than the destruction of the evidence, for this one they couldn't change any more. Unfortunately they had come to the conclusion, that finding Elizabeth was almost as hopeless.

„Not good."

The tone in his voice and the way he looked at her, made clear to her that taken this conversation into that direction any further wouldn't help. There was nothing more helpful to say about the whole matter and she didn't insist as he turned to leave right now and get back down to his office.

She could understand his reaction completely – to her it was simply unbelievable that something like this could have happened after all, but it didn't concern her personally, it didn't concern a case she was working on or a person she knew. Jack however had to cope with all those things, all the consequences emerging from it.

She looked back up at him, right at that moment as he turned back to her, looking at her in a way, she – if she wouldn't have known it any better – would have called desperate. His words however were completely fitting that emotion.

„We lost her."


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35:

Jack had gotten back downstairs from Van Doren's office, feeling deeply deeply frustrated and desperate. Whatever had caused this incident, it hadn't been supposed to happen and it could most definitely have been prevented – just that it was too late for that now. They couldn't get it back and they couldn't change the decisions being made.

When he returned to his own office about half an hour after he had been confronted with that bad news, he found himself face to face with the next surprise the day held for him, though he had no idea if it would be a bad one. Actually it couldn't get much worse any more after what he had just been informed about by his superior.

„Agent Malone? I'm Dr. Riber – we have been talking on the phone."

She had called him yesterday afternoon and had asked him for permission to come over. She hadn't informed him what this would be about, had simply told him she needed to talk to him. But as he knew that the doctor was Danny's therapist, it didn't need much of any imagination to guess why she had come here.

He had to admit that he felt uncomfortable about her visit – he had no right to know about what she wanted to tell him and – even more important – she had no right to tell him.

„Come in."

She entered the office, sat down opposite of him and gave him a look, but didn't say a single thing. Obviously she was as much troubled about this visit than he was. She seemed to have difficulties to find a start and he was trying to help her out.

„What can I do for you, Doctor?"

„I need to talk to you – about Agent Taylor."

Jack wasn't very much able to hide his discomfort about the topic and it didn't take her much of any effort to realize that. Obviously she had expected him to react like that – at least she didn't seem surprised. He was about to ask her for her actual motivation to come here, but was interrupted before he even got a chance to start.

„Look – I know I shouldn't do this... And, yes, I'm aware of doctor-patient confidentiality. I would keep to it, if there was anything to be kept confidential..."

„Pardon me?"

„He isn't talking to me, Agent Malone. He hasn't told me a single thing about what happened to him. He claims he doesn't remember."

„But you don't believe him?"

„Every last reaction shows me that he's lying. He's traumatized, deeply, deeply traumatized and he can't deal with it. Unfortunately he will neither have anyone else help him deal with it."

She sounded frustrated to him – had sounded like this since she had started her explanations and he could understand her. She was a therapist and it was her job to help - Danny however had decided not to allow her to do that. Still – Jack didn't get why she had actually come here. Her problems were none of his concern, Danny's condition was nothing he should know about, shouldn't have known about in first place...

Maybe Dr. Riber had believed she would do him a favor by telling him. If Danny would return to work, the younger agent's mental state was very well his concern. But Jack however had the slight feeling the female therapist had simply needed someone she could talk to, someone she could openly tell about her frustration. Still, he couldn't explain why she had chosen him.

„What did you come here for, Dr. Riber?"

He tried to stay friendly and sound polite, but he didn't very well manage. He couldn't keep a slight tone of annoyance from his voice. But she didn't seem to feel offended, still wearing a slight sad smile on her face.

„I have to let him go."

„Wait a second – didn't you just say he was deeply traumatized?"

„He is, but that alone isn't reason enough to keep him in hospital. Everyone who has to experience the loss of a family member or who is witnessing a crime is traumatized by it, just that this doesn't give me the right to put them in psychiatry. And neither do I have the right to keep him there."

The therapist was right. The hospital had to make certain decisions about whether or not a patient was to be kept under care and obviously Danny no longer fit that profile. Actually Jack was supposed to feel happy about that fact – getting his agent back. But the fact that Danny was still deeply affected by the experience and would not deal with it, simply keeping it locked up inside, trying to forget it – he couldn't feel all too triumphant about it.

„He's capable to take care of himself, he's not a danger to himself, he's not delusional, he's not suicidal and he's not violent – at least not any more..."

Jack winced by her last few words. Obviously she had at least managed to keep a close eye on Danny. But he couldn't really believe the injured man had attacked someone – Danny simply didn't seem capable of that right at the moment. When Jack had last seen him, he had barely been able to breathe on his own.

„What does that mean not any more´?"

"There has been an incident with one of the orderlies some weeks ago."

"What happened?"

The expression on her face changed to a very serious one, like he had just asked her a very delicate question. She crossed her arms before her chest, her lips mimicking a thin line and looked at him, her voice barely hiding her newly aflamed frustration when she answered.

"I don't know. He wouldn't tell me."

She was definitely not willing to tell him anything else and actually he really had no ambition to push it. However – although she had started – she still hadn't answered his question. The expectant gaze on his face, which he gave her, seemed to be enough for her to understand that he was still waiting for a proper answer.

"I actually came here to prepare you. I know it sounds hard, but believe me, it will be necessary. There are certain things you shouldn't be doing, certain rules to stick to."

He was somehow confused by her reaction. She was trying to keep them from triggering a breakdown, although – even if it sounded cruel – that had to be the one thing she actually wanted. Releasing Danny back into the real world and make him see that his mental state, his trauma left him unable to cope with a normal every day life. It was the one thing she had tried to make him see for weeks now, finally having him talk to her.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because triggering a panic attack or a breakdown, which will force him back to my care won't help. He doesn't trust me already and if I intentionally cause something like this to happen to him... I would lose every last chance to ever reach him. You need to understand that the main emotion I have been experiencing from him is anger. He's so very, very angry – and focusing that anger on me will not improve the already extremely tensed doctor-patient relation we have."

"So you want us to cope with his emotional problems?"

She looked deeply offended by his words – like he had misunderstood the noble intention behind her attempt. Well then – he had. To him this was simply looking like she didn't wanna bother trying any more...

"No, I am not. All I'm trying is to finally make him realize that he's **not** okay, that he is in desperate need of somebody's help – mine in particular. Everything I tried so far wouldn't make him see that. So I'm doing what he wants me to – I'm sending him back to his every day life and I want him to have the less stressful surrounding possible.

The breakdown will come, Agent Malone. I'm sorry to say it, but it will happen. I'm just trying to create a situation where it's impossible for him to blame anyone else for what is going to happen. And happen it will. To answer your question: No, I don't want you to cope with his troubles.

I want **him** to finally do it."


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36:

Jack had informed the team about the destruction of Elizabeth's evidence and the reaction had been like he had expected it. Desperation and disbelief had made it's way into everybody's mind, as they knew there was nothing they could do about it any more. The evidence was gone and they wouldn't get it back.

He had asked them to keep up hope and keep on searching for Elizabeth none the less. They couldn't just give up on her, especially not now, not as she was the only one right now who had full knowledge of her evidence. She was still a believable witness, even without that evidence and they needed to get her back.

He had assigned Martin to have a look into the whereabouts of Cristobal Adamén and Francesco de Vierra during the course of that last night, the night the evidence had been destroyed. Martin came over to Jack's office about half an hour later and the look on his face told Jack that there hadn't been much of anything he had been able to encounter – at least nothing positive.

„Any luck?"

„They are under surveillance 24/7, but there hasn't been any sign of foul play so far. They are simply just sitting in that hotel room they have gotten themselves and no one of them has left the room for the past two days... They know it, Jack – they know we are out there, looking for them, waiting for them to make a mistake.

Jack was very well aware of that fact – it was what had caused his frustration in first place. He really had hoped for some progress, some glimpse of hope after all, but he knew it had been pretty pointless. These men had managed to escape for the past twenty five years, they were too smart to have themselves caught this time.

„So they have been there for the whole last night?"

„Yes. Whoever is responsible for the destruction of that evidence, it wasn't them."

Jack didn't believe in that conclusion and the tone in Martin's voice, the sarcasm dripping from it, told him that neither did the other agent. But Jack couldn't help the urgent need to announce the words out loud.

„Of course they were – they just didn't do it themselves – they are too clever for that. Probably hired someone to do it."

„Phone records of the hotel show no incoming or outgoing calls for the past three days other then the lawyer and they didn't have any visitors."

„As I said, they are way too smart to get caught."

They both were aware of the fact that they wouldn't be able to find a connection between the two Chileans and the destruction of the evidence that had been kept here. As there hadn't been any evidence left in the storage room – forensics had confirmed it by now – there wouldn't be any evidence on the participation of the two men.

Martin however took the chance to refer to another angle of reviewing this case – a decisive angle in this case and actually the most frustrating one of all of them, because it was another one of those things they couldn't do anything about.

„She must have had a copy of that evidence – somewhere. I mean she must have thought about the possibility of something happening to her. What would she have done then?"

Jack deeply wished to be able to give an encouraging – a positive – answer to this. But he couldn't. He had experienced Elizabeth, her deep dedication and her difficulty with trusting people. She even had difficulties trusting a federal agency – she wouldn't have trusted anyone else then.

Martin referring to the Chileans, to what had most probably happened to Elizabeth actually was something Jack didn't wanna talk about. Of course there was still a chance that something different, something way more harmless had happened to Elizabeth and Martin had – intentionally – put his question that way, but that didn't make it much easier thinking about it and answering to it.

„She never would have told them and they probably never would have found it, that's what she would have done. You have seen how precautious she was when she was here, she didn't even wanna hand me her file over. She had been that extremely careful because something happening to her hadn't been an option. Believe me – she didn't have a copy of that evidence."

„But – I'm sorry to say it – that's stupid. We have to deal with the aftereffects right now and she would have been forced to, too. She would no longer have been able to catch them."

Martin's agitation – his anger about the outcome of events – was completely understandable. This wasn't fair, it wasn't just and if they had acted differently – for example forcing Elizabeth to take the protection offered to her – this would have ended differently. But they wouldn't find out about that...

„She wouldn't have been either way. If the evidence had been found she would have vanished alongside with it..."

„Which she did."

Jack wasn't willing to give in to Martin's interruption. He knew about the consequences of both Elizabeth's disappearance and the destruction of the evidence, but he really didn't wanna talk about it right now, although Martin obviously wished to. He went on with his statement.

„Anyways – it's the whole point of her working methods. She didn't have any copies because she didn't wanna endanger anyone else. That's why she tried to find the Chileans on her own first and it's why she blames herself for what happened to Danny. She endangered someone else because of her work..."

Silence emerged between them after Jack had referred to their fallen co-worker. It was difficult to react to it, no one of them really knew what to make of the events that had led to this whole investigation and neither of them was very much eager to be confronted with the condition Danny was in right now and even less did they want to be confronted with the consequences of it.

„There must be some other chance to get these guys, some more evidence or someone else who can testify against them."

„Right now I could only think of one other person to do that and he's in no condition to testify."


	37. Chapter 37

A.N.: Sorry for the delay – here you go!

Chapter 37:

Jack had asked the rest of the team to join him in his private office, without explaining why. He had simply ordered them around. But there had been no need for him to tell them what this was about. Today would be Danny's day of return, his first day of work since the assault and Jack obviously felt the need to advice them about it.

No one of them was particularly comfortable with this situation. It just felt like betrayal to prepare oneself for his return – and this was exactly what this would be about. It felt like they weren't able to act normal around Danny, treat him like always and that wasn't a very pleasant thought after all.

The more unpleasant thought however was, if Jack was actually right doing this. Everyone of them had been wondering if they would be able to get the normality of their every day working routine back, when Danny would return. And everyone of them had been concerned, if not even afraid of this day – not knowing what to say to him. Maybe this advice was actually necessary.

„There are some things I wanted you to be extremely sensitive with. I have been talking to Danny's therapist and she wanted me to tell you about it."

„I thought she considered him stable?"

Vivian interrupted him almost immediately, wearing a frown on her face. She didn't seem to consider this a good idea, as Martin and Samantha probably did, too. Just that they hadn't decided to insist against him in first place. He tried to stay calm, finding some words to defend his statement

„She did – to a certain extend."

„What does that mean - to a certain extend´?"

He was having a slight sensation of frustration and they hadn't even really started talking about this. He had been aware of the fact that his propsal hadn't been very well agreed to, but he at least had hoped for a chance to present it to them. Therefor – for this second interruption within about two minutes – he couldn't keep a slight tone of aggression from his voice.

„Look – it's simply just a security measure. She doesn't want to risk to trigger a breakdown. That's a good thing, isn't it?"

„So, what did she want us to stick to?"

He hesitated for a few moments, remembering his very own discomfort when Dr. Riber had told him. He didn't expect the rest of the team to react any different – especially not after these first few minutes of conversation. But he couldn't help it – Dr. Riber had considered Danny capable of getting back to work and he wanted it that way, Jack had no right to shut him out.

"The first thing she told me, doesn't really need to be said. I was aware no one of you would do it anyway. But she asked me none the less to tell you not to ask him about what happened. Don't question him, don't refer to it."

The looks on their faces told him that there definitely had been no need to ask that from them. It had been – right from the beginning, since they, although just partly, knew what had happened – been out of the question to be curious about this whole incident. They had no right to ask him about it and if he wanted to talk about it, he would do it.

"What about Elizabeth?"

"We won't tell him. At least not right now."

The tone in his voice wouldn't allow any insistence against that decision, although it was plain to see that the rest of his team didn't agree with that decision. They didn't want to lie to Danny and that was a noble reaction, but Jack had too much knowledge in the field of psychology to have them confront Danny with Elizabeth's disappearance. It could very well end up disastrous.

"There are two more things she wanted me to keep an eye on. Don't approach him from behind – at least not without making yourself audible – and... don't touch him."

The reaction was immediate and he hadn't expected anything different to happen. Dr. Riber had received almost the same reaction from him, when she had first asked him – the same reaction he got from Vivian in particular right now – she repeated his words in disbelief.

"Don't touch...? Jack, she should have kept him under her care."

He could understand her worries about this, it was the simple fact of what consequences were emerging from it. Jack couldn't recall a single incident where Danny would have been uncomfortable about being touched. It was a normal reaction around one another, especially after working together for so long.

This however seemed so completely unlike Danny – unlike the person they knew. It wasn't surprising however – the experience had left him traumatized and he had changed because of it. Maybe that was the frightening part of this – they had no idea if they would really get him back, if he was still the same character they had know before the assault.

"She had no right to. From a medical point of view he's stable enough to not have to stay there any longer... and he wanted to go."

"If **this** is necessary, Jack, he's definitely **not **stable enough to get back to work. I really don't mean to be hurtful or offending, but he shouldn't push it, not right now. He has been through enough..."

Vivian's empathy – the urgent wish to do the right thing for Danny – was honorable. She didn't want to him to aggravate his already troubled situation by a wrong decision. She didn't want him to get here. But it wasn't up to them to decide – the decision already had been made by Danny. The one thing they could do was trying to support him.

"Let's just wait and see how he is when he gets here, see if this is going to work out... Let's let him have a warm welcome."

He knew it was too late to think about it right now, but he asked himself none the less, if he had made the right decision. He really had no idea how to cope with the situation, how to act around his co-workers. All of them had seen him in the most weakened and exposed state he ever had been in in his entire life and they also knew what had happened to him.

He had no idea how they felt about it, if they were nervous and as unsure about how to react as he was. If they would pity him or if they would blame him for his inability to keep himself protected. Maybe they didn't even want him to return...

Jack's reaction in particular was worrying him. The senior agent knew about the aftereffects of what had been done to him, to an extend he actually had no right to know about. But he did and there was no chance to change it. But that didn't make it any easier to face his superior. He really didn't want to see that first reaction – he was afraid of it.

Well – he could no longer avoid this situation, he couldn't pull away and change his decision any more. He had thought about not facing his co-workers, about staying at home for some more time – but he had known that he couldn't do that. He had assured his therapist that he was okay, over and over again. Staying away from his every day life he had wanted to return to, wasn't an option. It would prove him wrong.

He had entered the building hesitatingly, like he had never been here before and he immediately felt like every last person present, was looking at him. Logically he knew it was none sense. The aftereffects of his injuries weren't visible – at least not to the people around him.

The injuries on his face had healed nicely, not leaving behind any permanent effect and the parts of his flesh, which had build scars were hidden beneath his clothing. The only lasting effect visible – if he moved his arms into a certain position – were the scars on both his wrists, where the steel wire had deeply cut into it. But right now they couldn't be seen. Apart from that it wasn't like the whole department knew about what had happened to him, but still it didn't change his awkward feeling.

When they left Jack's office to get back to work, they managed to do so at the exact same moment Danny stepped out of the elevator. The situation immediately tensed up, for it looked like they had been awaiting him – like a little conspiracy group revealed. Actually it wasn't that much of a bad thing to have him awaited – just that it was completely working against the intention to act as normal´ as possible.

Physically he looked better – a lot better actually. But as Dr. Riber hadn't allowed any visitors for the past six weeks, there was no wonder about that. The awkward feeling hanging above the whole scene however was caused by something that lay way deeper. It was the look in his eyes, on his face, his whole body language, showing that he felt deeply uncomfortable, if not even threatened

Something felt deeply wrong about it – probably because no one of them knew how to react. As they had just been basically forbidden to touch him, hugging him to show him they were relieved and happy he was back, wasn't an option. It was an uncomfortable situation and Danny didn't seem to know what to make of it neither.

The silence between them was ended as Jack addressed Danny right now in a soft tone.

"How are you?"

"I'm fine."

Jack tried to hide back a visible emotional reaction to the answer. He immediately remembered what Dr. Riber had told him, what she had been convinced about to be Danny's reaction to the question. She had predicted Jack would get the exact same answer he just had received.

But he wouldn't doubt Danny's words, not like this, not right now – here in front of all his co-workers, who – although they didn't very well know how to react to him – were relieved to have him back. He would give it some time and keep a close eye on Danny. For now he would stick to his very own advice and try to give him a warm hello.

"Welcome back."


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38:

It had been some more than a week since Danny had first returned to work and the awkward feeling about it still hadn't vanished – it rather had increased. He was doing his job as he was supposed to do and he wasn't in any way unfriendly around his co-workers, but still the situation was extremely tensed up.

It was the simple fact that his whole way of behaving was nothing like him after all – at least not like the person he had been before this incident. He completely lacked of his self-assurance, he barely ever talked to anyone if not absolutely necessary and the one thing he hadn't done once since he had returned to work had been smiling.

He had closed in, staying completely to himself, although they had tried to reach him numerously. They had asked him to join them for lunch, had offered to take him home at late evenings and had tried about half a dozen other things, but the reaction they got from him was always the same – rejection.

The situation with Jack was – for some reason the rest of the team couldn't detect – even worse. It seemed like Danny was tensing up immediately whenever the senior agent was close to him. They weren't talking to each other – at least not really. Jack had so far managed to communicate with him through the rest of the team.

But that wasn't it. It seemed like Danny felt deeply embarrassed by the simple presence of the other man – it made him extremely uncomfortable. With him it was even worse, because Jack at least had attempted during the first few days. But Danny didn't even bring up enough courage – or whatever else he was lacking of, that made it impossible for him – to ever look at the senior agent.

He had returned to this place and in first place everyone had seen this as a good sign, as a process of getting everything back the way it was. Just that nothing was like it had been before. The whole situation, the relation between them had changed and no matter how hard they tried there seemed to be no chance to get past it.

Actually it was partly their fault. Of course they had tried in other ways, but really talking to him hadn't been part of the routine. It had simply seemed impossible. How do you start a normal conversation, knowing that the other person had been brutally tortured just some weeks ago? How do you watch your words, trying not to agitate the other one?

As Jack had basically forbidden them to ask Danny about it and nobody was really that eager to know – apart from the fact that he wouldn't say a word – nobody had tried. It had simply seemed too hard, but it was another reason for the whole tension and discomfort around here right now. Having a conversation just like that, without thinking about it, not choosing words carefully – had always been a part of the every day socializing around each other. Now it had gone.

It was that Friday morning – 12 days after Danny's return – when one of them, Samantha in particular, finally tried. She was early that morning, it was about 6:30, but when she entered the office Danny was already there, although he didn't seem to have detected her presence. She knew she had exactly two choices right now – she could rather ignore his presence or try to talk to him.

She was uncomfortable about it, about being forced to make that decision, because neither one of the choices really seemed right to her. She would want to have him standing there by the wide window all to himself, but neither did she know what to say to him. She had no idea how to have a normal conversation with him.

She gently put her things down on her desk and made up her mind to go over to him. Having a start was – in most cases – the most difficult part of a conversation. But as he hadn't detected her so far and she hadn't made herself audible – having a start wasn't that much of a problem. Finding the words afterwards was the thing she worried about.

She left her desk, slowly and almost soundlessly walking over to him, immediately remembering Jack's warning about the rules he had asked them to keep to. She tried not to care about it too much and simply just kept on walking, finally addressing him.

„Danny?"

She was asking in a soft, almost vulnerable tone as she approached him from behind now, but he would neither turn nor answer her. It seemed like he wasn't even really there, like his mind had drifted off to some other place. Without thinking she reached out a hand, gently touching him by the shoulder. But she immediately pulled her hand back as he winced by her touch and quickly turned around facing her, fear clearly visible on his face.

"Don't! Don't do this, don't touch me."

"I'm sorry..."

He turned away again, not reacting to her apology and she didn't know what to do. If she should rather stay there and hope for an answer or if she should just turn and leave him all to himself, battling his very own demons. After all this time they had been given, the whole time of Danny's recovery process she still hadn't made out a way to cope with the situation.

"Just leave me, leave me alone, Sam..."

The tone in his voice was heartbreaking – it was a silent plea for help – and she had no idea how to help him. She wasn't a doctor, she wasn't a psychologist and she was not qualified to help him through his misery. However she was a friend and as a friend it was her responsibility to offer him her help. What else were friends for?

She stayed where she was, not listening to his demand, but stayed silent. She knew this wasn't about her and she wasn't the one who needed to start a conversation. She had decided to give him some more moments to reach out to her, and if he wouldn't, she would grant him his wish. She wouldn't force him, but she at least wanted to be able to convince herself she had tried. If she would simply walk away like this now...

But he wouldn't react to her – not verbally at least. She could see that his tension was growing by her presence as she still stood there behind him, waiting for his response. She knew he wanted her to go away, but she hoped that wish would make him turn and face her, talk to her, so he would achieve that goal. But on the other hand – rejecting and ignoring them had become something he was really good at.

She almost didn't expect him to help her out with the situation and finally come up with some response that would allow her to have a conversation with him. He still did not turn to her, obviously not wanting her to see his facial expression, but he responded to her. His voice sounded raspy and actually he sounded completely unwilling and almost rude when he finally responded to her.

"What do you want from me?"

"I simply just wanna talk to you..."

"Why?"

She was astonished by his question. She had expected about half a dozen other things – from rejection, ignorance or even being yelled at, but she hadn't expected him to ask for her motivation. And it was a hard question to answer, for she didn't know for sure for herself why she actually felt the need to talk to him.

Being honest it was a selfish reason. She simply wanted to feel better, she wanted to get rid of all the tension around here and she wanted to be able to have a normal working routine and relation with her co-worker. She wanted to be alright and this had been the one way to achieve it. Just that she couldn't tell him that.

"I,... I don't know – do I need a reason to talk to you?"

She hadn't meant to sound that offending, she didn't even know where that reaction came from. It hadn't even taken five minutes and she already felt sorry about her decision. She hadn't only managed to not reach him, she had also managed to offend him.

For some reason unknown to her, he finally decided to turn and look at her. She had actually expected to see anger or disbelief on his face – but there was absolutely no emotion visible on his face. He crossed his arms before his chest, the scars on his wrists visible to her for a few seconds as he did so and gave her a hard look.

She was pretty sure whatever he was about to say to her or ask her right now, it wouldn't be a pleasant conversation. However she had to blame that on herself, she had decided to do this, had decided to force him to talk to her. Now she would have to deal with his reaction...


	39. Chapter 39

A.N.: Thanks for all your reviews – you guys are awesome! Here are two more chapters for you.

Chapter 39:

„What's is it that you are trying to hide from me?"

She had actually believed he would come up with that question way earlier and she had hoped she wouldn't be the one to tell him. She had no wish to be around him when he would finally get to know about Elizabeth's disappearance. But she really didn't know how to start.

She thought about lying to him for a moment, but she knew she couldn't do that. He deserved to know the truth – as hard and painful as it was. She owed him that much, especially when taking into consideration who had most probably taken Elizabeth. She took an audible, deep breath and gave him a look of sympathy.

„Elizabeth..."

„What about her?"

She had really hoped he would have understood what she was trying to tell him in first place – she didn't want to go any more deeper into the matter. As it had been Jack's decision in first place not to tell Danny, this really shouldn't be her job. She shouldn't be forced to inform him. But he had asked her and now she had started, she couldn't pull away from this any more.

„She disappeared."

He didn't say a single thing, but he didn't need to. His facial expression – the emotions showing on it, told her more than words ever could have, more than she actually wanted to know. She had just informed him about something he hadn't had even the slightest idea about and he had been completely unprepared.

She could see realization dawn in his eyes. He knew exactly what had happened to her, who had been responsible for her disappearance and he knew even better what she most definitely had been forced to suffer from as soon as she had been in the wrath of her kidnappers. He knew she was dead and he knew she could be lucky about the day, she had finally been allowed to pass away.

It seemed to her like he felt sick – all the color being drained from his face and – although she couldn't even imagine what he and also Elizabeth had gone through – she could understand it. It must be a horrible sensation. He had finally managed to escape his attackers' wrath and now it came back on him full force.

And she wasn't even sure he had actually managed to break free from them. Physically he had, of course. He was here, he had returned to his normal life, but that didn't mean much of anything. It was his state of mind that was the decisive part of this whole matter. And she was almost sure that – in his mind – they were still there, he still hadn't escaped them.

"Wha... What...happened?"

It had taken him a lot of strength to even ask the question and she clearly knew that he already was aware of what had happened, he knew who had made Elizabeth disappear. He simply didn't want to admit it, didn't wanna say it out loud, didn't want it to be true. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he still had some hope. But she couldn't keep it up for him.

"We believe she has been kidnapped..."

"By them..."

She didn't need to answer to that question, that response of his. He had more been talking to himself than to anyone else, allowing realization to sink in and try to understand what consequences were emerging from it, what that meant for Elizabeth – for her life and her chances of survival.

He looked to her like he was in desperate need of sitting down. The physical reaction to the information he had asked her to give him seemed to much to take for his already traumatized mind. She felt for him, although she wouldn't tell him that. He would most definitely misunderstand it as pity and she didn't wanna aggravate his desperate feelings any more.

He managed to find his voice again, almost surprising her, for she had been pretty sure he didn't wanna know anything else about it – had already heard enough. But maybe he needed to hear this, needed to hear the truth from her – a truth that had be kept from him. Just that she wasn't sure, telling him how long it had actually be held back from him wouldn't help the situation much. Unfortunately he would leave her no choice.

"How long...?"

"It's almost two months now."

He rather didn't believe what she was saying or he simply wasn't able to react – complete disbelief showing on his face. She was aware of the fact that this response meant something completely different to him, than it meant to her. He knew what had happened to Beth since she had been kidnapped, he had experienced it himself – he knew what these men were capable of.

Sam herself really didn't wanna know. She never wanted to be confronted with whatever he still knew about his experience. She knew she wouldn't be able to cope with that. She already had troubles to act normal around him, but knowing this, knowing what suffering he had gone through – she would be unable to ever treat him like she had done before ever again.

He finally managed to put some words together – words he had been searching for, while he was struggling with his memory, struggling to keep his emotions at bay to not have her see them. However it hadn't worked out that well. But he wasn't to blame for that – actually it was the one normal and healthy reaction she had seen from him in days. He was giving in to that emotions.

"Why didn't anyone tell me?"

She wouldn't lie to him, but neither would she take the blame for it. This hadn't been her decision and therefore it wasn't her task to defend the choice been made. She was aware that doing this - without having Jack know about it - wasn't fair. But from that point of view, it hadn't been fair to lie to Danny in first place.

There had been a certain responsibility to take care of their co-worker's state of mind and take it into consideration when making this choice. Up to this morning she never had considered it the wrong choice, she simply hadn't felt comfortable with it.

But now – seeing Danny's reaction and realizing that so far he had been able to cope with it without the expected breakdown Dr. Riber had presumed – she started to think about it again and she answered his question honestly.

"It was Jack's decision."


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 40:

„Alright, Agent Taylor – you have been very brave, you tried to suppress your pain and desperation and so far you have done good, but this will be over now. I give you this one last chance to tell me what you know about Elizabeth Tejar's investigation results, otherwise I will have you killed."

They had returned, had returned to the darkness of his room and this time it would be the last time – he knew that, the other man's words told him so. He wouldn't answer their questions and they would no longer bother trying. This whole ordeal would finally be over – for good.

„You will have me killed either way, you goddamn bastard. I won't help you."

Danny was barely able to announce the words, his lungs were hurting, as if they were on fire. But he was angry – he was at the edge of desperation and he was angry. He had been used like a toy, had been laughed at, had been hit and he had been robbed of his dignity. He had been forced to endure a form of torment that felt that sickening to him he simply had wished to die.

He had cried about it – he knew it was pathetic and it was in no way helpful, but there had been nothing he could have done about it. The tears seemed to have streamed down his face automatically. He had felt ashamed and exposed and he had simply wished to close his eyes, forget about this and never be forced to open them again, lying in complete darkness – the only companion by his side his imagination.

And this imagination provided him with images that were even worse than what he had gone through so far. It was coming up with ever new possible forms of torture and pictures showing him how he would die. He wasn't even able to shake them off, there was no way – it was not like he could open his eyes and see reality around him. It was the same darkness he saw when his eyes were closed and the images stayed.

But the longer he had been forced to lie here, wait for them to return, the more his feelings had slowly, very slowly changed. Rage had taken over desperation. The only thing he wanted to do – his one most urgent wish – was to kill his assailant, who had put him through so much pain. But still he was afraid, afraid of what they would do to him now, if they would cause him any more pain, any more embarrassment.

"That's too bad – I had hoped we managed to convince you to cooperate. There is no need for all this."

He knew it was most stupid to be brave on this one and come up with some cocky remarks. Apart from that he physically wasn't in any shape to actually say much of a thing after all. He had difficulties breathing and there was no region of his body that didn't ache or throb. He knew he shouldn't make this man angry – he was the one in charge, the one who would punish him if he did so. Still he was too angry for that, he couldn't really help it.

"Like it hasn't been a pleasure to you."

He could literally see the other man's features harden in the darkness of the room. He had managed to anger him, but the reaction came quick and brutally. Though he didn't physically hurt Danny in any way. He managed to do something far worse – only by words.

Danny hadn't even realized the man hadn't entered the room on his own, he wasn't alone. But the words he was saying clearly let him know.

„You want to have him again?"

„No! Good heavenly lord, please don't do this to me. Please don't, don't hurt me – not like this. Please just don't."

He could feel the other man's hand on his hip as he sat down at the edge of the bed now and sheer terror overwhelmed him for one other time. His breathing quickened and he tried to force himself to stay calm, not let his emotions rule him once again. He wouldn't cry again, he wouldn't plead for a second time.

It had happened so easily for a second time - he had lost all his will to fight, be strong and sought strength from hating these people. They had managed to make him break down by a few words a simple threatening question and he had completely lost his dignity for the second time within hours...

It was a moment of desperate realization – he would never escape them. Even if they would set him free, he couldn't escape. They would stay in his mind – in his soul, for the rest of his life. Scenes like this one replaying over and over again whenever he would feel frightened or ashamed. They would not ever go away and he couldn't even do a single thing about it. He had lost that strength he had vowed to hold onto – he had let them break in and now they would stay...

„No. Just finish him off. I'm not interested."

He winced by the words, but the very next sensation he felt was relief. He wasn't even afraid or desperate about the other man's proposal. He simply felt grateful – it was a strangely sickening feeling, but he was content all of this would finally be over. He wouldn't have to go through any more pain, there would be no more gruesome pictures, his own imagination came up with. No more insulting treatment – no more memory.

He realized that maybe this was the reason why he had been so very angry with them in first place – why didn't they just let him go and ended this. Well – they had come to this decision now. He would finally be set free from his captors and in this way they would never again come back to haunt him.

His arms were once again released from the bed he was tied to and he perfectly knew what would happen to him right now. They would hurt him for one last time, get him tied to the damn ceiling again to do what they were told and he had not even the slightest chance to steady his injured body.

He screamed in pain as soon as he felt his full body weight on his arms – his already injured wrist not capable of coping with the pressure put on it. The restraints were cutting deeply into his wrist and it felt like he would be losing the hand simply be the pressure put on it.

Fortunately his already weakened state and the long darkness without much of any sleep, no food or water, left him barely aware of what was going on around him. But he could feel the pain, the old wounds and the newly inflicted one – the aggravation of the already severe injuries. He could feel it to an extend he never believed would be able – not without passing out.

None the less he knew unconsciousness couldn't be far any more, he could feel it and he appreciated it. This would be over in a matter of minutes and there was nothing more for him left to endure. But something strange happened right then, something he hadn't expected, hadn't even imagined – Adamén spoke up in his behalf.

"Stop it! That's enough."

He was released from his attacker's grip, unable to react, to steady himself... Hell, he was unable to properly breathe or feel anything else but searing, blinding pain right at the moment and he knew he was losing consciousness - the dizziness told him. He knew if he would do so, he wouldn't wake up again – never.

Danny was aware of the fact that something was very wrong with his breathing – it felt like he had water in his lungs, which probably meant the aggravation of injuries had caused one of the broken ribs to enter a lung wing, causing an internal bleeding. The deep wound on his side didn't feel any better and he knew it was heavily bleeding.

He fell to the ground, not even able to minimize the impact of the fall as he wasn't able to balance his weight – on two broken legs - probably making some of the injuries even worse. But that wasn't a thing to worry about – he would die either way, this way round probably sooner than later. But he didn't get why they had stopped, why they hadn't just kept on until he finally stopped breathing. He knew it couldn't have taken much more time...

The man who had been questioning him, inflicting pain through the hands of others, who had put him through a living hell, leaned down to him, close to his face. He could feel the other man's warm breath on his cheek and although he was barely conscious, the searing pain robbing him his consciousness, he could hear the whispered words.

„I'm not gonna kill you, Agent Taylor. I know you would appreciate this outcome of events, but I won't do you this favor. You weren't willing to help me, so I won't help you. I know you don't want to have to endure any more of this pain and that's why I'm not gonna kill you. I'm gonna let you live, so that you will always remember what was done to you, who broke into your mind and stole your pride and dignity. I want you to live – for it will be far worse than dying ever could be."


	41. Chapter 41

A.N.: Once again I'm very sorry for the delay, but my personal life has been catching up on me :-). I finally received my transfer note to my new work place and it's been a little hectic since then...

However – here are four more chapters for you. As I will be gone for another week of holidays now (once again I'm sorry) I hope it will shorten you the time to the next update. Enjoy.

Chapter 41:

When Jack had come to the office this morning, he hadn't been the first to be here. He had detected Samantha and Danny already being there, talking to each other. He had been surprised about that particular sight, but he actually was happy about it, it was a good sign, a sign of recovery.

He had thought about heading over and joining them, but had skipped that idea rather quickly. He knew Danny was uncomfortable around him and he had every right to. Going there, meeting up with them, he most definitely would cause this conversation to be over. He wasn't willing to risk that.

He had thought some more about it, having the one or other look at the two agents while he settled down in his office for the day. He asked himself what they were talking about, how Samantha had managed to reach him and if this really was a first sign of progress or if she had forced him. His questions were partly answered all of a sudden, as Danny burst into his office – catching him in surprise – completely infuriated and yelling at him.

„Why didn't you tell me!"

Now he knew what they had been talking about. He should have known better – Samantha had been uncomfortable with this in the first place... For now he wouldn't bother thinking about her reaction. He needed to find away to get the extreme tension out of this situation, getting some time to find a plausible answer and hopefully be able to calm Danny down a bit.

„About what?"

„You know perfectly well what about! Elizabeth!"

It was obviously not working this way.

„There hasn't been time to tell you."

He knew it was a pretty lame excuse, but it was better than telling Danny he hadn't believed he would be able to cope with this, that he believed the younger agent's mental state was to weakened to deal with a situation as emotional and stressing as the disappearance of someone he knew or at least had offered help to.

„She is missing for eight weeks straight now, Jack."

Sarcasm was dripping from the younger agent's voice as he reacted to the answer Jack had given him. At least Danny was no longer yelling at him, he had achieved some progress after all. But he knew he needed to give him a more honest answer, something else than an excuse and he knew he didn't wanna do that.

He didn't wanna confront Danny with his real motivation – which simply had been him thinking that the other man wasn't capable of dealing with it – not at all. He had expected a psychotic episode or even worse as soon as he was confronted with what had happened to him. And he had been – Elizabeth's disappearance was one big danger to him, for he would remember...

„I didn't want you to know."

He still hadn't answered the question and Danny was very well aware of that fact. Even in his fury and anger about Jack's decision, it didn't take him much of any effort to realize the senior agent was trying to buy time and have him calmed down and out of this office before he would be forced to tell him about his actual motivation. But Danny wouldn't let him get away like that.

„And why would that be!"

„Because I didn't think you were able to deal with it. Not after what has happened to you..."

For just a few seconds, Jack believed to see complete terror materialize in Danny's eyes. But the moment passed by as soon as it had come. He rather had been wrong or Danny had managed to get his emotions under control – he wasn't sure about that one. Danny's response however made him see, that his last believe had been the right one and why the younger agent had been forced to fight down his feelings.

„I don't remember anything, Jack. How am I supposed to not be able to deal with it?"

Right now he was able to understand Dr. Riber's frustration – she who had heard these words probably a few dozen times. He was confronted with them for the first time, but he came up with the same feelings as the psychologist. He had hoped this confrontation would be of some success at least. But he had been wrong – Danny was in no willing to admit he wasn't okay.

„I was just trying to protect you..."

He realized his mistake just seconds too late. This whole conversation, the whole situation that had led to it – had been about protection and it was the reason why Danny was barely ever looking at him...

He had realized the younger agent was blaming himself for what had happened to him as soon as he had returned. It had taken seconds to detect it. The way he avoided him, his discomfort, his whole behavior around him, told Jack that Danny was deeply afraid of what he was thinking, was thinking about who was to blame for what had happened.

He couldn't understand the other man's reaction, but - from a psychological point of view – he could explain it. Danny hadn't been able to protect himself from what had happened to him. Jack was absolutely sure Danny never had any chance to do so anyway, but he also knew it was the most common and – well – normal reaction a victim would come up with.

And now he had told Danny he had wished to protect him, had told him that there had been need to do so. He had just informed him, that he didn't believe he would be able to protect himself from his psychological reaction to Elizabeth's disappearance. The more decisive thing was that he had confirmed Danny's suspicion. The suspicion that Jack was blaming him, blaming him for his inability to protect himself...

„Okay..."

The sudden change in Danny's voice, which was but a whisper right now, the sarcasm completely disappeared and completely replaced by desperation and something else he believed to be guilt, left Jack completely unable to react for a few seconds. It was all the time Danny needed to move to the doors of Jack's office and get out of here – literally trying to escape.

„Danny..."

Jack tried to stop him and he actually managed to make him stop in his attempt for the door. He wanted to explain this to him, wanted to tell Danny he wasn't blaming him in any way. He wanted him to know he was simply caring for him, worrying about his state of mind. But he never got the chance.

„No... It's okay, Jack – it's okay."


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter 42:

Danny had just rushed out of the room minutes before, and Jack was still a little ammed up by the confrontation with the younger agent. He had seldomly experienced Danny that angry, Actually he couldn't recall a single time. But his thoughts were interrupted as Vivian came into his office.

„Jack – NYPD found a body in Hudson River. They believe it's Beth. They asked us to get to the city morgue for identification."

He looked at her thoughtfully for a few moments before he nodded. He got up from his chair and grabbed his coat – ready to head down and get to the coroner's office for identification.

"Alright – I'm gonna take Sam with me."

They drove down to the morgue in his car without talking to each other. They didn't know yet if the coroner's office really had found Elizabeth's body - and if they had, talking wouldn't change that.

They headed down to the office of the female coroner and were informed that she would be there, joining them in a moment. Sam risked a short look at Jack's face while they were waiting, but she still wouldn't address him. It was a tensed up situation and she didn't want to disturb him right now.

Samantha knew what he was thinking – apart from the sensation of grieve for the young woman who had been killed simply for believing in justice and doing the right thing. But he knew that the very same thing, the very same situation could have happened as the Chileans had Danny in their wrath. They could've killed him and then Jack wouldn't have been called to a hospital that day.

The coroner approached them right then, greeting them and asking them to follow her. She led them to a room with a wide glass window, which was covered by a white curtain right at the moment. In that room was the body of Elizabeth Tejar – a woman who had gone missing more than eight weeks ago.

"Good day, I'm Dr. Shane – you came for the young, South-American woman who was found this morning?"

"Yes, what can you tell us about her?"

„The body must have been in the water for several days, but for this, it's still in a pretty good shape. The freezing water kept it that way. Anyways that doesn't mean her body is in a good shape. You want to get inside?"

They nodded silently and the female coroner opened the door to the examination room. There was a metal table standing in the middle of it and Elizabeth's body covered by a white linen. The coroner took a few steps over to the woman's body and hesitated before she folded the linen back to look at them.

„I can't even imagine what this woman had been forced to go through before she was finally allowed to die."

The words she used, left a sickening feeling behind - talking of death as being given to someone as a favor. And it made them not want to see that body they had to identify. They both had seen what the persons responsible for Elizabeth's death, were capable of. In pictures and in reality. Probably even imagination was far more pleasant than the actual reality.

The doctor didn't leave any more room for imagination or any more time to think about what Elizabeth had gone through, when reality was revealed on them in the injuries that were visible on her dead body as the coroner finally folded the cloth back.

"Is it her?"

"Yes it is."

Elizabeth's features were barely recognizable – her face covered in cuts and bruises and wearing an expression of terror and agony. Seeing what had been done to her – only in her face – there was no wonder about that facial expression.

The coroner put the cloth aside some more, revealing the upper part of Elizabeth's body, down to her waist. The injuries were widespread and enormously grave. There were deep blue and purple spots of bruises, deep and partly effected cuts on her entire upper body and her ribs had obviously been broken – her ribcage didn't look right.

Jack took a step closer to the dead body, examining the injuries and then swallowed hard. He stepped back again facing the coroner, his face showing no signs of emotion. His voice however sounded raspy as he addressed the young doctor.

"How long has this been done to her – what time frame?"

"It took some time - some of the injuries are healed, some even build scars already... How long has she been missing?"

"Eight weeks."

"Then it took the entire time frame – taking the date of death into consideration, which was about three days ago. She had to suffer from this hell for seven and a half weeks before she finally died from it."

„What..."

He needed some more seconds to find his voice again, having the one word of his question choked out. It had been too many sickening details they had provided with about Elizabeth's suffering. He needed to find his composure before he could go on.

„What did she die from?"

„Her lungs were severely damaged by what has been done to her. One of her lung wings is filled with blood. She suffocated, choked to death from her own blood. But I'm afraid I have to tell you, she wasn't dead when she had been dumped in the river. The blood in her lungs is mixed with water and it's definitely from the river. They dumped a dying woman in the goddamn river..."

This was too cruel to be true – it was simply awful and unimaginably gruesome. Beth had been a dedicated, rightful and very young woman, she had done the right thing, sacrificed the last two years of her life for a very unselfish deed and had simply been trying to help a lot of grieving families to get some justice. She had been killed for that – in the most horrible and slowest way imaginable.

Jack remembered her words when he had first encountered her, when she still had believed he was trying to trick her and that he had been sent by the very same people who had done this to her. She had been willing to shoot him and the even more important fact was – she had been willing to kill herself. She had known that to die by her own hands would be much easier and more pain free than falling into the Chilean's hands.

She hadn't been able to protect herself from that, did not get a chance to end her life in the way and at the time she had wanted it to. She had constantly been aware of the danger for her – otherwise she wouldn't have thought about such drastic measures – and still she had fought on.

But her fight was over now.


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter 43:

When they left the room the coroner had put Elizabeth's tortured body at, neither of them was able to think clearly. This had been an awfully exhausting and horrific experience and it wasn't easy to cope with it. They had known her when she had been alive – how full of life and dedication she had been – and seeing all this being taken from her... it had been indescribably cruel.

But the worst of this whole situation was not yet over. When they left the room, they found themselves face to face with someone they hadn't expected to come here, to even know Elizabeth's body had been found. Danny was waiting for them outside the room, pacing the floor, arms crossed and wearing an absolutely furious expression on his face.

Jack was more than surprised to see him here, actually he was worried. He had – knowingly – kept the information about the discovery of Elizabeth's corpse from Danny, exactly for this reason – because he didn't want him to come here. But somehow the information had reached him none the less and Jack was pretty sure he couldn't talk him into leaving, not after basically lying to him, although it had been for his own good.

„Would you have told me about this? Would you have told me about her?"

Danny was yelling at him – he was certainly not having his feelings under control and it was all too understandable. But Jack wasn't willing to give in, he needed to stay calm – hoping for his own feelings to radiate. Maybe he would at least achieve for Danny to calm down, although he wasn't very sure about it.

„Danny, I..."

He didn't get much further with his explanation about his motivation.

„Would you have told me? Or would you have simply kept on lying, keeping information from me and have her buried somewhere without even letting me know? Would you have done that?"

„Danny!"

„Would you have had enough respect to tell me the truth!"

The situation was getting out of hand – it was getting out of hand and he couldn't seem to get it under control. Danny was angry with him – more than that, he was completely infuriated. He felt betrayed, disrespected and probably embarrassed by Jack's decision and given what he had gone through, that was a very dangerous mix. One that made it almost impossible to have him listen.

„Listen to me..."

But Danny wasn't willing to listen to him – not even for a second. Jack finally asked himself, if Danny was actually completely aware of what he was doing. Of course this was a heated and very emotional situation and Jack had kept information from him, but he had never before experienced a situation where Danny had been yelling at him.

„I want to see her. Now!"

Jack barely was able to keep himself from wincing as Danny expressed his demand. He wouldn't let the other man enter that room, containing Elizabeth's corpse. It had been the exact reason for **not** telling him – Jack hadn't wanted Danny to see this. He knew he couldn't cope with it – it had been hard enough for him and he hadn't been kidnapped and brutally tortured for three days...

He tried to calm down and get his emotions back under control. Aimlessly yelling at one another wouldn't help clear the situation. He needed for Danny to calm down and listen to him, rationalize the whole incident. He needed for him to understand why he had kept this information from him, why he couldn't go in there. He managed to give his voice a soothing tone when he spoke up again.

„I don't think you should..."

„I don't care what you think! I want to see her – goddamn it, you owe me that much, don't you think? If you didn't have enough respect to tell me, at least give me a chance to say goodbye, for heaven's sake!"

He thought about it for a moment, but just for a moment. He knew he couldn't let him in there. Seeing Beth's bruised, battered, broken, dead body would bring back every last piece of memory immediately and with full force. Danny had been through all this, all the injuries that finally had caused Elizabeth's death and he had been close to this point himself. It was simply dangerous to let him inside the room.

„I won't let you in there!"

„We will see about that."

Danny's reaction came quickly, though not unexpected, but too quickly to leave Jack another chance to react. He was past him and at the door to the room where the remains of Elizabeth Tejar were kept in before Jack even had a chance to grab him by the arm or address him once again.

The coroner hadn't put the cloth back above Elizabeth's body, leaving her exposed and clearly visible to Danny who had just entered the room. Obviously the younger agent hadn't been prepared for that sight, not after all. He stopped in his attempt to get further into the room immediately, staring blankly at the form on the metal table.

„Oh my god... Good lord – no... No..."

He was just standing there, unable to move, unable to do anything after all but just stare at the bruised, battered, broken, disfigured, dead body of Elizabeth and silently whisper a plea for help – for the sight in front of him not being true.

Jack who had entered the room right after him, trying to hold him back from getting inside there, stopped dead in tracks by Danny's reaction. He could seldomly remember to have ever seen him that shook up by the sight of a corpse.

Of course – this were aggravated circumstances. Danny knew the woman who lay dead on that metal table and the injuries, which were visible, were simply just horrible. Jack realized too late that this wasn't about Elizabeth, although he had felt the exact same feeling when entering this morgue.

This was about Danny and about the question what might have happened, what different outcome of events there could have been. As Jack, Danny was very well aware of the fact that he could have ended up in the same way – tortured to death and dumped somewhere, never to be found again.

The physical reaction to the newly aggravated psychological trauma caused by the sight of Elizabeth's death body came that quickly and violently, nobody – not even Jack who had expected some reaction of that kind – was prepared for it.

Danny started to tremble – first in his hands and then the sensation seemed to get a hold on his whole body, like he was running a high fever. He lost balance, but was luckily supported by his superior who helped him sitting down. Danny automatically - as he definitely wasn't able to think clearly right now - pulled his knees to his body and his arms around them, the trembling still not subsiding.

Jack was unable to react for some more moments – looking at the scene in front of him, being forced to see Danny like that – he needed a few seconds to gather his composure. But his mind quickly was back at full strength, telling him what had to be done and that it had to be done quickly.

„Call an ambulance!"

„What is it? What's wrong with him?"

„It's a panic attack, a goddamn nervous breakdown."

He knelt down next to the younger agent, holding him by his shoulders and hoping to get his attention, but he wouldn't look at him. He didn't get any sign of response after all. He was staring past Jack and there was no sign of him actually being aware of the other man in front of him. Jack tried to reach him none the less.

„Danny? Can you hear me?"

Jack was pretty sure his question was pointless – Danny wasn't aware of his surrounding right at the moment and that actually was a good thing. His brain had – as a security measure – shut out the sight in front of him, the sight of Beth's corpse – tortured by the same people who had almost killed him – and had left him completely unaware for the reality around him.


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter 44:

Jack felt exhausted – physically and emotionally – he just couldn't put it any other way. It had been a horrible day so far: Elizabeth Tejar's death had been confirmed, Danny had suffered from a breakdown and just moments ago he had finally been able to hang up on the Chilean's lawyer who had argued with him about further procedure, openly accusing him to violate the rights of his clients, and having to hear the demand of setting these bastards free over and over again.

There had been moments during that phone call, he had simply wished to yell at the lawyer – especially when he came up with the violation of rights´ talk. Jack's emotions had been boiling right under the surface while he was asking himself if the damn lawyer had any idea what it felt like for the people who's rights **really** had been violated by his clients.

Luckily the phone call had ended before he had lost his patience with the guy, before he had actually started to yell at him – and it had been close to the edge, he knew that. Right then, Vivian entered his office, showing him a sympathetic smile – obviously the anger was still clearly showing on his face.

„Bad news?"

„I just was on the phone with the Chilean's lawyer – not a pleasant talk after all."

He hadn't expected her to respond to this – there was nothing to say about it. They had all known that their chances of keeping this group of torturers and murderers had been extremely low since the only real evidence they had, had been destroyed. Now, he was left with the uncomfortable, hurtful truth - that they had lost.

„They will get free – it's as easy as that. There is no more evidence left we could use, no one left to press charges and neither can we prove that they are responsible for both of those events. So as long as Danny doesn't give **his** testimony and presses charges against these guys – we have nothing at hand to keep them under arrest. We have to let them go."

Vivian frowned by his words, and he wasn't really sure what caused it. Of course, this was the most unfair and unpleasant outcome of events they could have been provided with, but she had most definitely been aware of that facts already. However her agitation had been caused by something else.

"He doesn't remember what happened to him, so what's he supposed to testify? Actually we should be damn grateful about this particular fact."

It had happened once again, he was forced to lie due to the things he knew and had no right to tell anyone about it. He knew Danny had been lying about his memory – or the lack of it. He simply wasn't able to talk about it – even if that meant to set his attackers free. He wasn't to blame for his reaction in any way – but still it meant for Jack to be dishonest with Vivian.

"Right... you're right. They will most definitely get free then."

They both knew she was right – there was nothing they could do. The coroner examining Elizabeth's body had been their one last hope, but actually this hope had been pretty pointless. Her body had been in the water for several days before she had been found. All the evidence – if there ever had been any – had been washed away, leaving them with absolutely nothing helpful.

Actually there was nothing else left to say about this whole matter, but Vivian didn't seem willing to leave his office. She was still sitting there, looking at him in a way that definitely told him something was bothering her, something apart from the Chileans and the fact that they had to be set free.

"Jack, what is it that you and Danny are hiding from us? What is it that we are not allowed to know about? What's wrong with the two of you?"

That had been unexpected and Jack was barely able to hide his surprise. He hadn't expected her to approach him that openly on the matter. And he didn't feel comfortable about it for it once again meant that he had to lie, which he really had gotten tired of by now.

"Pardon me!"

"Oh come on – Danny has been avoiding you since he returned, he hasn't been talking to you, he barely ever looks at you and this morning in your office you were fighting with each other. Something **is **definitely wrong."

He was angry with her, angry about her curiosity. They had agreed to try not to treat Danny differently, giving him a chance to restart the life he had been living before the assault. They had agreed on being careful and sensitive with him and now Vivian was telling him she had kept a close eye on Danny's reaction

"So you have spied on him?"

"I haven't been spying on him. There was no need to. His reactions were hard **not** to notice."

She was right and he knew it – actually he had known it from the beginning. Being angry with her simply had been easier than admitting his own discomfort about keeping information from her. It had been unpreventable – these people he was working with were trained to see through people's behavior right to the core of the emotion. And with Danny it didn't need a psychologist to see that there was something wrong, that he was hiding something.

"I'm sorry, Viv – I can't tell you. I have no right to – it's up to Danny to tell you about it or not."

He had expected her to insist against his decision, but surprisingly she didn't. They both knew that Danny's behavior was having an effect on their every day work and although he had no right to inform anyone about Danny's condition, he still had the responsibility to have this team - he was superior of - working at it's best. But he couldn't guarantee that right now, not without exposing Danny.

"This thing you can't tell me about... It's the reason he barely ever talks to you, the reason why you were fighting?"

It wasn't much of a question any more. His reaction had been too obvious to still have this in question.

"Yes."

"Then I guess it's better not to know about it."

He didn't say anything in return. She was right and he was aware of that, the expression on her face was enough to tell him that she knew, he didn't need to confirm her words.

She got up from the chair she was sitting in, heading for the door to leave him alone. But she hesitated, turning back to him.

"You have to try to convince him, Jack. You have to make him see that he's the only one who can bring these guys down, the only one who's able to serve justice. He needs to testify against them."

He looked at her with some surprise. He hadn't been aware he had been that easy to read, hadn't expected her to notice, that Danny had actually been lying about his memory of the incident. Jack himself was no longer willing to bend the truth – he just gave in, confirming her suspicion.

"I know."

She nodded thoughtfully and then finally left, left him alone with the decision. She was right – but this was nothing he wanted to do, wasn't even sure of how to do it. Jack knew that Danny felt deeply embarrassed about the fact that Jack knew about the assault – that was the reason for Danny's inability to act normal around him and now it was Jack's task not only to talk about this extremely sensitive matter with Danny, but to convince him to tell it to others as well.

But Danny had to – it was as simple as that. Not only to serve justice and have the Chileans to go to prison for what they did – to him, to Beth and to several hundred other people – but for his one sake and sanity. He had to work through the ordeal he had been forced to endure and this was his one chance to do so. It would be helpful. But if he wasn't able to help himself – no one would.


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 45:

Samantha had been in search for Jack, after Vivian had told her about the lawyer's call and it's consequences. She was sure, Jack was pretty troubled about this outcome of events – he had wished for some justice, for both Danny and Elizabeth. But they wouldn't get it and she had felt like maybe he would wanna talk about it.

He wasn't in his office when she got there. She found him down the hall on his way back to his office – it seemed like he had just accompanied someone to the elevators, saying goodbye. He seemed deeply lost in thought – whoever he had just said goodbye to, had obviously caused this reaction. She approached him, stopping him on his way back.

„Vivian told me about the phone call from the Chileans' lawyer... I'm sorry."

He didn't respond to her, just like he hadn't heard her after all.

„Are you okay?"

His reaction surprised her for he didn't answer her question. She needed a few seconds to understand what he was referring to. His reaction told her clearly who he had been talking to, but still his abrupt answer, which had nothing to do with her question, left her worried.

„She was married, did you know that?"

„No."

This was more of information she had wanted to know about Elizabeth. It had been hard enough to accept that she had died, had been killed for they had all known her – she had been a great help along the way and a very friendly, dedicated young woman. But knowing about her life, her family – knowing what she lost – was making it even harder to accept.

„Her husband just paid me a visit, he is going to take her home tonight, she will be buried in her hometown in Chile..."

This was quiet astounding. She didn't even know how her husband would know she had been killed. But most definitely they had been in some form of contact and as she hadn't been able to hold contact with him any longer, he probably had known something had happened to her.

What had surprised her however, was the fact that he had come here to take her home. It was a long way from Chile to New York and Elizabeth could have been taken home without him being present. He had taken the time – had somehow gathered the money and had abandoned his job – to come here and take her home. He was here to honor her for what she had done. He definitely loved her deeply...

„He told me he had been very proud about what she had been doing for those families – he himself lost his mother during the dictatorship..."

Now this was a completely new angle – something Elizabeth hadn't told them anything about. She had put it like she had simply done it out of sympathy and the will to help, but she never had explained that there was a very personal reason for her to do this. That she had seen the suffering with her own two eyes.

„Do you think that's why she was doing this – for him?"

„I don't know, but I guess it would explain her dedication. She has experienced on her own what it means to be robbed of a beloved relative without ever getting a chance to bury them."

Silence emerged between them again – there was nothing more to say about it. The simple tragedy about Elizabeth's death, the unbelievable cruelty of her injuries was nothing to be talked about. And Sam neither wanted to be informed about any more details of Elizabeth's private life.

Jack, still pretty entangled in his thoughts, went on telling her about the visitor he just had none the less.

„I told him about the trial against her torturers and that they will probably get free."

„How did he react?"

„He said she died for a good cause none the less – that she achieved something, has taken the organization a step further to victory. He believes her death hasn't been senseless."

She knew Jack wasn't sharing the husband's opinion. They had not been able to have the Chileans sentenced for any crime, Elizabeth's evidence had been destroyed, she herself had been killed and the lawyer, the Chileans had gotten themselves, would get them free – there was nothing they could do about it.

„He's a strong man..."

„He fights for something, he fights for justice – I think that is giving him strength. And he believes he can win this fight."

She was worried about his words – the tone of them. To her they seemed pretty desperate and as the husband – although Jack didn't share his opinion – had a very ideal view of this whole situation, she didn't get what Jack felt so sorry about.

„Aren't we fighting for the same thing?"

„Yes, but we lost the fight."


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter 46:

Jack had decided to get to hospital and talk to Danny. He couldn't keep this from the two of them, especially not for any more time now. If he wouldn't manage to convince Danny today, the judge would be forced to let the Chileans go and that decision would be made the next day, 9:30, in court. They were in need of evidence until then and if it wasn't there, they would walk free.

He didn't want to do this – he knew it would most definitely end in a situation he neither wanted to be forced to deal with, nor wanted Danny to cope with. But it needed to be done – there was no other chance, no other witness to keep this case from going down. He had to do this – even if it meant hurting Danny – the outcome of situation if he didn't was too grave not to do it.

He arrived at the hospital about four hours after talking to Vivian and right after telling Sam about Elizabeth's husband. He felt emotionally drained already by everything that had happened today and he had no idea where to gather the strength for that upcoming conversation from.

He didn't even know if Danny had calmed down already. After his breakdown, he had been completely unaware of his surroundings and the medics had put him on a strong sedative to calm him down. The effects wouldn't wear off that soon and Jack was pretty sure Dr. Collins and Dr. Riber had agreed to have Danny on some form of anti psychotic.

So maybe this whole way down to the hospital had been for nothing and actually that was what he wanted. Of course he simply could have called here and asked about Danny's condition, but that didn't feel right. If he had been informed his agent was unresponsive right now, it would have felt like he hadn't even tried to convince him and if he had known from the start that Danny would be able to talk to him, it would have been even harder to come down here.

He headed upstairs to the Doctor's office, hoping to find Dr. Riber who most definitely was in charge of Danny once again and able to tell him if he was okay. He found her, sitting at one of the tables, a cup of coffee next to her and reading a patient's file.

"Dr. Riber?"

"Agent Malone. I guess you're here for Mr. Taylor?"

"Yes. How is he?"

"He's still on medication, but he's awake. I would like to keep him here for at least another day or two, but he will be okay. You may see him if you want to. I guess he could need a bit of company right now."

Jack wasn't all to sure about that, but he wouldn't tell that to the doctor. He just asked her for Danny's room number and then said goodbye, heading down the floor and to the younger agent's room. He hesitated a few moments in front of it, gathering some more courage before he went in there to try to convince Danny.

Dr. Riber had been right – Danny was awake, but to Jack, it didn't seem, like he was very well aware of his surrounding. Jack wasn't sure if it was due to the medication or due to the earlier events, Danny was now forced to cope with. However Jack wasn't sure, Danny had detected his presence and he wasn't very sure how to start this very difficult conversation. But he didn't have to.

"I know why you came here, what you want me to do..."

Danny had very well been aware of Jack's arrival and he knew even better about Jack's reason for being here. It hadn't needed much of any imagination anyways. With Elizabeth's death, they had just lost almost every chance to get the Chileans sentenced, apart from this one last chance – Danny's testimony.

Jack however was lucky he hadn't been forced to find the right words for a start. He could simply just go for it, for the opening Danny had given him. The one thing he needed to manage right now was to convince Danny and that was a hard enough thing to achieve already.

„If you won't testify, they will walk free. All of Beth's work will be for nothing then."

„I can't."

It had to be expected that Danny would react exactly like this, but still it was frustrating. From Jack's point of view it was a logical and rightful decision. But he hadn't experienced what Danny had and he couldn't even start imagining what it had been like and what he felt like right now. Just that it made Danny's reaction even less understandable to Jack.

„Even after what they put you through?"

Jack knew he shouldn't have asked the younger agent this and the reaction was forceful and immediate.

„Don't you dare! Don't act like you have any idea what I have been through. You don't know, you have no idea – not even the slightest and believe me – you wouldn't want to!"

„I'm sorry."

He really was – he meant what he said. Just that his words had caused an extreme emotional reaction from Danny, a reaction leaving him unable to believe in the honesty of Jack's words.

„No, you're not – you're curious. Do you want me to tell you, do you want to know? Is that what you want?"

Jack knew he had gone too far by trying to talk some sense into him, making him see the responsibility for his very own justice. It had been their reason for not talking to each other, for feeling uncomfortable around the other and even fighting with each other. It was the fact that Jack knew very well about Danny's condition, that he knew details the younger agent should have had the right to keep for himself.

Still Danny's reaction surprised him. He had been aware of the fact that he had been lying to them, but he hadn't believed Danny actually had that much of any memory. He had believed there were bits and pieces of the assault left and taking the severe injuries he had sustained into consideration that had been most probable, but obviously he had been wrong and the disbelieve about it seemed to clearly show on his face, causing a reaction from Danny.

„Don't you get it! I **do** know, I do remember – everything, to the last sickening detail. I memorize every last feeling, every infliction of injury, every last word spoken to me – every goddamn moment of it. Don't you think I wish for all this memory to be wiped out? To be able to forget it? But I can't – I will have to live with it! I can't get away from it, no matter what I'm gonna do."

Of course, Jack had known that Danny had been lying about his lack of memory, but he hadn't expected it to be that clear and detailed – he hadn't expected the younger agent's situation to be that desperate. It was far worse than Jack had ever imagined it and he felt for Danny. He couldn't even picture what he must feel like and he really wasn't eager to find out. He had no idea how he had managed so far, without going crazy about it.

Jack didn't know how to react to this confession, how to cope with the actual truth. There was nothing to say about it – whatever he would say, it wouldn't help Danny and although he had openly asked him if he wanted to know, Jack knew he hadn't been serious. Danny didn't want to tell him – he had simply reacted out of anger.

But there was no need for him to say anything. Danny was in no need of neither his advice, nor his sympathy. Jack simply just looked at him and the expression on Danny's face – that complete emptiness, told Jack – that whatever the younger agent was about to spill out on details about these three days of his kidnapping, Jack really didn't want to hear it.

„He told me something... You wanna know what?"

Jack didn't answer the question and actually he didn't believe Danny actually expected a response from him. He was too less aware of the situation around him, as entangled as he was in his anger and desperation as that he really wanted an answer.

„He told me... that surviving –living past it – would be far worse than dying... You know what? He was right."

Jack was left completely speechless by Danny's confession – he wasn't even sure he had actually heard what had just been said – it couldn't be, it just couldn't. The consequences emerging from the few words were far to grave to even think about it. He just couldn't believe, couldn't even imagine the younger man had actually thought about killing himself.

It was simply unbelievable – he had never experienced any form of weakness, not like that, from Danny and he couldn't even begin to understand the horrors of his experience that had caused such a desperate reaction.

He stayed silent, completely unable to find any words that would be in any way soothing or helpful. There was no response that would fit into the situation right now, nothing he could say, nothing that would make it any better. Danny however wasn't looking at him, probably deeply lost in these miserable, desperate, depressing thoughts Jack had pulled to the surface.

Danny's facial expression was rid of any form of emotion, though he had visibly paled and he didn't look at the senior agent, his eyes fixed on some spot far across the room. Jack was actually close to leaving the room to get a doctor, fearing he had triggered another breakdown by what he had pushed Danny to admit to him, but the younger agent spoke up again, his voice barely audible.

"I wanted to, you know... When they came back that last time, I was actually relieved it would finally be over. I wanted to die."

He had been right – Danny had actually wanted to die that day, he had wanted to never wake up from that ordeal he had been put through. It was more than unbelievable, it was heartbreaking and Jack just couldn't respond to it. But he didn't need to – Danny seemed, for some reason Jack couldn't detect, to feel the urgent need to explain

"Don't you see – it's my fault..."

Jack frowned by the words announced. He honestly had no idea what Danny was talking about. He couldn't really be believing that he was responsible for what had happened to him, he couldn't be blaming himself? Or did he? Did he really believe this was his very own fault and that it could have been prevented...?

"That's not true. None of this is your fault. You didn't do anything wrong."

"She told me to be careful, she told me more than once and she was deeply serious about it... I,..., I didn't listen to her,... I ignored her warning..."

"You were kidnapped on your way home probably two to one at least. You have been alone and caught in surprise. It isn't your fault."

"I tried to... I tried to get away, I tried to escape, but...I... I wasn't... strong enough. I couldn't keep them away."

"Danny – it isn't your fault, you are not responsible for what happened to you. They are, they alone. You had no chance to escape them, you didn't do anything wrong, you didn't fail in your protection."

"Don't you see? I had a chance to escape, I had a chance to keep all this from me, I simply had to make a decision, but I couldn't do that... I couldn't keep them away from me, I couldn't keep them from... from... hurting me. I wasn't strong enough, I simply wasn't able... I wasn't able to fight..."

"You have been fighting like hell! You survived, you woke up from coma again, you healed."

"I should have fought harder, been stronger. I... I don't know... I should have kept them from hurting me, from... doing what they... did to me."

Jack knew perfectly well, what Danny was referring to.

"I cried... I must've spent hours and hours with it. I,... I simply just lay there, doing nothing after all, nothing to even attempt to free myself and I... I just... I just cried."

"But that's perfectly okay... You do know that, don't you?"

Although Danny looked at him, Jack knew he wasn't really listening to him. He had reached a point of memory where he was reliving what had been happening to him and that was a situation leaving him unable to listen to anything said around here right now. He simply went on spilling out details, without even being completely aware of his surrounding.

"I...was... was... afraid. I have never in my life felt that frightened before. Never. Don't you understand that? I wasn't supposed to be afraid of them... I was the one with the evidence, the one who was able to bring them down and,... and I was afraid... of them."

"You had every right to, Danny. You haven't done anything wrong..."

Jack knew Danny still wasn't really listening to him, but that wouldn't make him stop reassuring the younger agent. It was the only help and support he could offer, while Danny was finally talking about his experience and what it meant for him.

"I can't deal with it, I just can't. I have no idea how to do it. They won't go away, they won't ever go away... They will haunt me for the rest of my life. It's... it's pathetic, I know that, but...

"It's not, it's okay. It's okay..."

"He,... he told me I would never,... never forget. That I would...always... always remember. That I would...would always be confronted with... how... how they broke my will... how they... they managed to steal... steal a part of my soul... I will never get it back..."

"But you pulled through – you escaped them. No matter what he told you, he didn't win over you. You are here... You need to give it time. It will get better..."

"Don't you understand? I won't, I won't ever forget. I'm forced to see what they did to me, forced to cope with the aftereffects every damn morning when I get out of bed and look into a mirror..."

Danny was unable to go on – at least not in this way. He couldn't talk about the inflicted injury and the consequences they still had for him. On every damn day...

"I can't fight this, Jack. I don't know how. I don't have the strength. God, I never had any – I was never able to fight them... It's my fault, this is all my fault. I could have kept them away, they had me lose from that bed and I could have escaped, but I... I didn't... I couldn't escape..."

"You can, I know you can do this and I'm also very well aware of the fact that it's hard. I can't even imagine how hard it must be. But you took a first step into a very good direction. You told someone about it, you told me. You had the courage to talk about it, to deal with it."

"I can't do this again. It's... painful..."

"I know, I perfectly know and I know it's not fair. You already have been forced to go through enough of this. But you have a chance to get rid of it."

"You mean by testifying."

"I know it sounds selfish, well it doesn't just sound like that – it is. If you don't get into that courtroom tomorrow to testify against them, this case will be over and they will walk free. I know you don't want to hear it and even more know that you don't want to go in there, but if you won't, they will win. They will win this battle you are fighting in so desperately right now. I know you don't believe me, but they are afraid, afraid of what you know. You have to stand up against them."

"I... I can't... I don't think I... I can't face them – I just can't."

"You won't be alone. Danny, they cannot hurt you and if you gather enough strength and courage to enter this room tomorrow they will never be able to not only get to you any more, but they won't ever hurt anyone else again. You will get rid of them, but you have to do something for it – you have to testify..."

He was whispering and he was not able to look at Jack or he simply didn't want to. The trembling in his voice told Jack how painful and difficult it was for Danny to even form these few words – the decision he was about to make.

"I'll try."


	47. Chapter 47

Chapter 47:

He felt exhausted, deeply, deeply tired after his conversation, his confession to the senior agent. This last three quarters of an hour seemed to have lasted for eternities and they had been a living hell. But he had to admit that he was feeling a little better now – he didn't feel good though, he was still far, far away from that. But he was relieved to finally have the certainty that he wasn't being blamed for what had happened, that apart from sympathy and the wish to support him there were no other feelings brought towards him.

Still he was afraid – afraid of being forced to repeat what he had just told Jack about. He hadn't been able to announce a single sentence without hesitation or his voice breaking. How was he supposed to testify in a courtroom in front of a bunch of strangers. He didn't know if he was capable of doing so. He knew he had to – for Elizabeth and for his very own sake, but he really wasn't sure he could.

The one thing he was most threatened of was facing his attackers. It was a strange realisation he had right now – he had never seen their faces before. The darkness he had been kept in for the whole time had prevented it. Actually he didn't wanna be forced to deal with this on top of all the other memories. He didn't want the voices his memory haunted him with over and over again to get a face, too. It was bad enough already.

He couldn't even imagine to ever get in the same room with these men ever again, to see them, face them and stand up against them to testify. He knew they couldn't harm him in that courtroom, he would be safe. But the sheer sight of them, the memory being connected to it, was terrorizing enough. However he knew he couldn't very well avoid it – he had to testify.

He remembered what he had told Jack earlier – he had been the one with the evidence, the one able to harm the Chileans – they had been supposed to be afraid of that. They hadn't been threatened though – they had been angry and they had severely hurt him for what he knew. But now he had a chance to threaten them once again – by testifying – he simply had to make that decision.

He needed to sleep – get some rest before he would have to enter that courtroom. Thinking about it wasn't helping him in any way, it simply increased the level of exhaustion. He knew it was late, but he didn't bother to check – closing his eyes, breathing in deeply, trying not to think and to relax. He was close to falling asleep when something, some change in the scenery around him, made him feel uncomfortable and then he was addressed in a low, calm voice.

„Agent Taylor."

Every last emotion he thought he had been able to suppress and calm down came back on him full force. He knew that voice and he was terrorized with fear about his realization. He was unable to react – he knew he needed to try to escape from the bed and out of the room or at least scream for help – but he couldn't. The very presence of the other man in his hospital room left him completely unable to do anything after all.

He had no more chance to protect himself from any further attack as he felt the cool blade of a knife brought down to his neck. He was aware that the Chilean male had no scruples to make use of the weapon Danny was threatened with right now. He hadn't had any before, when he had first... Danny wasn't able to think any further.

„I don't think I have to tell you that I will make use of this utensil if you don't do exactly what I want you to do. As you chose to live past the earlier events, I believe you have a certain motivation not to make me do this."

The damn bastard was as polite as always, even while threatening Danny to kill him. But he was right – Danny couldn't risk to move away from the other man... Apart from the fact that he physically wasn't capable of doing so, anyway. But if he would get himself killed tonight, there would be no chance to serve justice any more. Anyways – Danny had the impression that this whole incident was about him **not** testifying.

He tried to get his emotions under control and find his voice to talk to the other man, question him about his motivation. But it was barely possible – this whole scenario just felt too goddamn familiar. The bed, the inability to move, the semi-darkness of the room and his attacker's threatening words. But he knew he needed to try and stay strong this time – he wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing his fear.

„What do you want from me?"

„You won't testify."

Danny had been right with his suspicion, but he still didn't get what this whole event was all about. Why did he tell him that? If he really wanted to prevent him from testifying he had his one chance to do so – right here and now. Danny knew it was a dangerous question to ask, but he was actually quite curious about the answer.

„Why don't you just kill me?"

„I already told you that. I wouldn't do that. I'm not willing to grant you that favor."

Danny swallowed hard as the other man reminded him of the last few words he had been saying to him. Danny knew what the elder Chilean was up to – he tried to trigger his memory to haunt him, he wanted Danny to break down – physically and mentally – which would leave him unable to testify. Danny knew he couldn't let this happen, but he was almost sure he wouldn't be able to prevent it.

„I'm going to convince you instead."

Danny knew the only thing he could do to prevent this from happening, prevent the Chilean from making him not testify was to scream for help. But he would risk to get killed then... So far he had been able to convince himself that he hadn't done it because if he would scream and the Chilean would slash the knife across his throat, he wouldn't be able to testify.

But he wouldn't be able to do that either way. If he would yell for help now, there would at least be a chance the elder man would be caught by the hospital security staff. But he couldn't, he didn't want to die – he wanted to live. As pathetic as it was – he wished to protect that miserable excuse of a life they had left him with. It was a selfish, cowardish decision – a decision which would set the Chileans free, would set his assailants free and **he** had just made that decision.

„You wouldn't want to end like Señora Tejar, would you? The poor young woman... You wouldn't believe one single person could endure that much pain, would fight for the life left in her so hard, although she was doomed, although dying would have been much easier and a lot less painful..."

Danny wished not to be forced to listen to this. He was aware that the medication was supposed to keep his emotions at bay – but he couldn't keep the memory away. The memory of Elizabeth's broken body, her contorted features and the pain still visible on her face, although she had been dead for several days.

He could feel the slight trembling in his hands once again and he knew he couldn't listen to much more of this – not without a disastrous, psychological reaction.

„Do you want to know what happened to her?

Do you want to know how she was screaming in pain, crying in desperation and pleading for mercy for weeks and weeks of torture?

Do you want to know about the sickening sound of a bone breaking and her agonizing screams afterwards?

Do you want to know how she had this very same blade cutting deep wounds into her flesh, how she was violated over and over again though she begged us to stop?

How her rips were broken, blood seeping into her lungs from the injury, and how she gurgled and gasped for air for hours and hours while she was slowly drowning in her own blood.

Do you want to know?"

It took nothing more but the other man's gentle touch to cause another episode of extreme psychological trauma. The soft touch of the other man's hand, the warmth radiating from his body and the words he had been saying were enough to cause Danny to shake violently. Every last piece of memory was mixing with the newly encountered information about Elizabeth's torment and leaving Danny completely unaware of his surrounding once again as his mind came up with the most basic security measure to protect his broken psyche.

Adamén took the knife away from his victim's neck in triumph and satisfaction. Both emotions clearly visible on his face. He put the knife away and made his way through the room. He knew that sooner or later a nurse would check on his victim and he couldn't risk to get caught – not after achieving his goal. But he couldn't keep himself from turning back and facing the deeply traumatized man for one last time.

„I told you, you wouldn't testify."


	48. Chapter 48

Chapter 48:

It was the morning of the final day of trial, the one decisive day, the Chileans would be sentenced at – justice finally served. Jack was proud of Danny for making the decision to testify. He couldn't even imagine how hard this would be for the younger agent – facing his torturers and telling what had been done to him in front of a court.

He wanted to support Danny in any way possible and therefore had decided to pick him up from the hospital and take him to court. However Jack had a nagging uneasy sensation, a bad feeling – telling him that something was wrong. But it was most probably just the nervousness and the graveness of this trial.

When he arrived at the hospital, he was surprised to see Dr. Collins waiting for him at the entrance doors to the station of the hospital, Danny had stayed at for the past two days. His surprise changed into slight horror as he detected the expression on the doctor's face. She looked deeply worried to him. He didn't even wait for her to tell him what was wrong.

„What happened to him?"

„I'm not sure. He started screaming all of a sudden in the early morning hours and I couldn't manage to calm him down. I had to have him sedated and he won't come around for at least another few hours."

„But you have no idea what caused this?"

„I really don't know, but I have a certain suspicion..."

Flashback

Cristobal Adamén was seated in a comfortable chair in the hotel room, the suite he and Francesco had taken. He was holding a book about the Roman Empire in hands, but he wasn't reading it. He was paying close attention to his friend, who was nervously pacing in front of him up and down the room.

„Why the hell didn't you have him killed in first place?"

He stayed absolutely calm, having totally been prepared for the other man's reaction. There had been differences between the two of them already, when he had ordered that the federal agent in contact with Elizabeth Tejar was not to be killed. Francesco had called him stupid that day and careless, but he wouldn't have himself attacked in that way and Francesco had obeyed to his order.

„There was no need to."

„He is going to testify against us, Cristo, he's gonna take us down. He's a danger to us. Why don't you see it?"

„He will not appear in that courtroom tomorrow!"

„Why, because you say so?"

„Exactly. I'm gonna take care of it."

„So you will have him killed?"

„No, that's not what I said. I said I will take care of it."

Realization dawned on Francesco as he realized what the elder man would be doing. It was simply crazy and he had no idea why Cristobal would take that much of a risk. They could solve this problem of theirs much easier and without anyone of them getting in trouble. There were about a million ways to get rid of their victim, ways a coroner would never even notice. But Cristobal... he was simply mad!

„Don't tell me you are going there."

His older friend and partner – his mentor – didn't answer to him. He simply just looked at him with that calm, calm expression on his face, the book still held in hands and a slight, almost non-detectable smile on his face. He didn't seem to worry about this after all, like his decision was perfectly normal. Francesco however was enraged – he wouldn't let this happen.

„You will **not** do this, Cristo, you will not! This is insane. They will see you, they will take you down and then we will both be send back to Chile. You know what they are going to do with us down there?!"

„They will not see me, it's going to be okay."

„Why don't you just kill him. You killed that bitch searching for us – why not him? What's your problem, Cristo? Affection?"

„She was a danger to us, that's why I had her killed."

He was not willing to listen to him. Francesco had brought about more than a handful of good and reasonable arguments, but still he wouldn't listen to him. He knew it was hard to convince the other man when he had made up his mind. But as entangled as he was in doing this, he must know that it was madness. He couldn't actually be believing he would get away with it.

„He knows we tortured him, Cristo. He knows who we are and he **will** testify. Don't you call that a danger?"

„He will not. Trust me. We will walk out of this courtroom as free men tomorrow. He won't be able to testify against us."

Francesco saw one last opening, one last chance to convince his mentor and hopefully it would work. He simply **needed** to change his opinion, he needed to allow him to kill that FBI agent. Otherwise they would both be doomed.

„And what about the day after that, what about next week or next month or maybe even in a year? Don't you get this Cristo – we need to have a permanent solution for this problem."

„They have no right to harass us any further after that trial. Even if he makes up his mind and decides to testify, we will be long gone. We will leave this country first thing tomorrow. I thought you always wanted to see the Mediterranean Sea and I would really like to see the Acropolis. We will leave and they will never find us. Don't you think Athens sounds like a good choice?"

Francesco was in no way convinced by his partner's words and he still wanted to know why he was that unwilling to simply kill the federal agent, who had been in their wrath. He hadn't understood it in first place and he even less got it right now. But he trusted Cristobal, he deeply trusted him. So far he had always known what to do and he had always done the right thing. He would listen to him this time, even if he didn't like his methods.

End of flashback

„Someone has been to his room?"

„I have no proof for that, but I would highly suggest it."

„Thanks, Dr. Collins."

Jack was raging with fury, though his outward appearance didn't show any sign of these emotions. He knew very well who had been to Danny's room, who had managed to get in here unseen and had scared his agent that deeply, Dr. Collins had been forced to sedate him. He knew who was sadistic enough to do something like that – and once again he had no proof after all.

He arrived at the court about half an hour later and he knew, he was late. The trial had started some five minutes ago and he knew the judge didn't like any delays. He had made that very clear to Jack, the last time he had been in this courtroom.

He entered the room, getting a very annoyed look from the judge who seemed to have been waiting for his arrival and a very concerned look from Vivian who had come here before him, calming down the judge and telling him about Jack's delay. Jack sat down beside her and was immediately questioned by her.

„Where's Danny?"

Jack got no chance to answer her question. The judge addressed him right then in an annoyed, almost aggressive tone. He knew this whole hearing would go wrong, it would simply go down like a sinking ship and he couldn't help it. He had no chance to prevent that outcome of events.

„I would like to get this hearing started now as we finally have everyone present. What about your witness, Agent Malone? Can we start with the testimony?"

„No, your honor, we can't. Agent Taylor is in no condition to testify today."

The judge looked at him in absolute disbelief like Jack had just made a very bad joke. Jack strongly believed that if this wasn't such a delicate matter, the judge actually would have laughed. But for the moment he was simply getting more and more angry with him, not believing him after all.

„And why is that?"

„It seems like he has been harassed of some kind during the course of the last night..."

It was a feeling of deja-vu – once again they were not able to present a witness and once again Jack was exactly sure who was responsible for this. He knew the Chileans had found some way to keep Danny from this courtroom, though he had no idea how they had managed to do so, but he knew it – the smile on Cristobal Adamén's face told him so.

„Agent Malone, are you really telling me, that – for a second time – you are not able to present a witness and that – once again – some mysterious event you neither can explain nor have a person responsible for at hand, has caused this to happen? This is starting to get ridiculous – to put it in a friendly way."

„Yes, your honor."

„Alright then."

The judge had a short look at the paperwork on his desk and then gave a very hard look to Jack – obviously blaming him for what was happening to his case right now. Jack believed to even see him shake his head slightly, like he couldn't believe what he had to say next. He fixed his eyes on the Chileans, making the decision that could no longer be prevented.

„Cristobal Adamén, Francesco de Vierra - the charges against the two of you are dismissed as the opposite party hasn't been able to come here with any form of evidence whatsoever, which would prove the crime that was supposed to be committed by you. I have to say that in all my years of experience I have never been confronted with a case that sloppy and badly prepared. I highly advice you – Agent Malone – to not ever try something like that again, not when I am the judge in charge.

Mr. Adamén, Mr. de Vierra – gentleman you are free to go."

Author's Note : Now please don't hate me for the ending of this story... :-)

There's still one more chapter to go, but I wanted to say thank you already to all of you who reviewed this story – you make my day and keep my inspiration flowing. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it for you people. Thanks again.


	49. Chapter 49

A.N.: So this is it, the final chapter of the story. I hope you enjoyed it and I'm thankful for all your reviews. Just so you know, there is a sequel to this story titled "Desperate Measures" and if you would like to read it, too – please let me know. Now have fun with the final chapter!

Chapter 49:

It was the fourth day after the disastrous trial that had set the Chileans free and Danny's first day back at work since the panic attack being caused by the finding of Elizabeth's corpse. It was a routine, normal, busy working day like every other and still it seemed like everything had changed.

This was all wrong – the whole situation hadn't been supposed to end up like this. They had hoped for some justice at least, something positive about all the horrific things that had happened around them in the past few months. Some light in the darkness after all. But there hadn't been – the Chileans were free of any crime...

When Jack had gotten to work this morning, he had found Samantha standing in his office, having a thoughtful look into the main room. She didn't even seem to be aware of his arrival and he didn't wanna scare her. But he was very much convinced that she had a good reason for being here, that there was something she wanted to talk to him about.

„Are you alright, Sam?"

She stayed silent, like she hadn't after all heard his question. She was still standing there beside him – arms crossed before her chest, looking outside to the wide room in front of her, observing the busy people in their working. She didn't turn to him when she silently told him what she had come here for, what she wanted to talk about.

„We lost him – at some point, somewhere along the way we have lost him."

He was taken aback by her statement. It were simple words that mirrored the truth in a way that it was almost physically painful to listen to them. She was just completely right and the tone in her voice told him, that she felt as desperate about it as he did. He knew nothing more to say, but an answer as simple as her words.

„I know."

„Don't you miss it?"

She turned to him now – the feelings she had clearly showing on her face and the urgent wish to talk to someone about it being written in her eyes. Like she needed his confirmation to believe that all of this was true and had actually happened. As much as he wished, he couldn't make it go away. Still her question left him partly puzzled, causing him to ask back in return.

„What?"

„The person he used to be – the one smiling and joking and getting on your nerves? Don't you miss having him around?"

It was a heartbraking thought, but she was perfectly right. The person they were working with today, was no longer the same he had been just three months ago. He had changed, had lost himself in this three days of his disappearance and he most definitely would never find himself again, wouldn't get back what he had lost. His assailants had done good work – they had taken this away from him for good.

„Yes, I do."

He really did, he wanted Danny back the way he had been before the assault, but he knew he wouldn't get that. It wasn't up to him to take care of it. It was the younger agent's very own recovery process and there was nothing Jack could do about it. Danny needed to find a way through all the fear and pain his memories caused...

The situation hadn't much improved – Beth's death and the Chileans getting free had rather aggravated the fragility of his mental state even more. If that was possible. He still wasn't good – apart from the way he acted around his colleagues, his restrained, closed in, even unfriendly behavior was just the beginning. He was still having these terrible nightmares, memories haunting him and causing him to feel nothing else but sheer panic.

They had gotten the body back – his injuries had been healing nicely, leaving no permanent effect, apart from the scars. But they were nothing in comparison to the ones his soul had been provided with and it was even harder to do anything about these. The mind – the character, the part of his soul which had held the last piece of innocence and naivity – had been ripped out, thrown to the ground and had shattered into a million pieces, a puzzle to complex to ever reset it.

There was the saying that time was able to heal all wounds, but Jack wasn't too sure about that. And even if it was true – the amount of time needed to heal all the horrible events, Danny had gone through... It would take a lifetime at least.

It was the most unfair thing after all. The Chileans had managed to get away from this with no further aftereffect, even Elizabeth had managed to. Where ever she was right now, she wouldn't have to suffer any more. Danny however – although it had only been three days – had been injured in a way that would last and would affect him for the rest of his life. There was no justice in this.

„Do you think he will ever find a way back?"

He knew it was cruel to be honest on this one, but she hadn't come here for his support, she wanted him to be honest with her, she wanted to know. Although that didn't really make it easier to answer her question. At least not while looking at her. He took his eyes of her face – the demanding look in her eyes – and watched the main room outside his private office, having a look at the man they were talking about – or at least what had remained from him, had been able to find or rather fight his way back to every day life...

„No."


End file.
